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Trading Game 

21st Pack

Special Class Tournament Arc: Grand Finals

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There was a short time for a break, between the finals and the grand finals, it was done to give some preparation time for the two groups of duelists, but if anything it was mostly for the finalists who went through the qualifiers to take a break after two straight rounds of pretty intense dueling.

So here she was, sitting in a room with her deck of cards spread out on the table, facing Yuri whose own deck was also divided into several stacks, shuffling each and stacking them again, drawing to see his test hands.

Which was apparently not a thing that you would do in this world. Testing your draw and looking for the test hand, that is, she promptly chalked it up as more of those annoying anime bull that she’s been quite normalised to at this point.

The two of them sat in silence as they played with their decks, with her reviewing the last few duels that the pair of boys she would be facing and thinking of their choke points, thinking of which point of their board should she interact with and how to potentially break them.

In the case of Fubuki’s Red-Eyes deck, it was quite linear at which part she should use her interaction, usually in the form of Sheou’s one negate, on the high impact card that was Red-Eyes Fusion.

There are of course arguments to which she should negate the other cards of activation, for instance the activation of Red-Eyes Insight which could search both the fusion spell or the interactive trap that was Red-Eyes Fang With Chain, or the draw spell that was Cards of the Red Stone.

But while doing so would perhaps minus her opponent, there was always the chance that Fubuki could just hard draw the fusion spell, that or already having said spell in hand, which would mean that he would have just baited her one negate.

The other problem would have been if he had drawn two copies of the card, which he could just activate after baiting her one negate, as sheou negates the activation, meaning that he could technically still activate the fusion spell.

The case for Ryo was the same, Cyberload Fusion was still, undoubtedly like every other fusion based decks, the biggest choke point that she could find in a full fusion oriented Cyber Dragon deck. Had the future Kaiser played the XYZ monsters that the deck had, cards that don't currently exist in this dimension, then the choke point that his deck had would have been quite varied.

After all, extension was the name of the game for Cyber Dragons, such was the case for Cyber Dragon Nova who could revive a Cyber Dragon from graveyard, and the popularization of Galaxy Soldier who was just a generic special summonable Level 5.

There’s always the cases of negating the normal summon, which was more often than not, Cyber Dragon Core, but emptying the board just leaves him open to summon a Cyber Dragon and popping off from there.

Then there was also Eltanin, the card that both duelists had apparently put in their decks, a card that was also a big turning point for the previous match. It was their board wipe of choice, though it doesn’t mean that they don’t run others, but it was also an enabler for the Chimeratech OTK that Ryo had performed in the last match.

And that wasn’t mentioning the existence of Limiter Removal and what it could do with his already high attack Cyber Dragon Fusion Monsters, and Power Bond just making his Fusions even bigger, though she was quite sure that he doesn’t have any easy way of searching for the two cards in question.

Doesn’t he? Right, she hadn’t given him Cyberdark cards like Cyberdark Realm and Chimera, though she did give him Horizon, which was technically always treated as one. Who would have thought that he would use it as a way to bridge his Cyber Dragons with Fubuki’s Red-Eyes? She’ll have to give him points for creativity for that.

Ah right, but the fact that he’s running the Chimeratechs probably means that he’s running Overload Fusion justa s another OTK enabler. He’ll probably side out the Chimeratech Fortress Dragon since neither Yuri nor herself were using machines, but the card was still a good enabler for Cyberloard Fusion and getting a big Chimeratech Overdragon, or Chimeratech Rampage Dragon.

The latter was also a card that she had gifted him, though she hadn’t seen him summon the monster in question during the two matches that he had played in, but then again in both of those matches the Dark Machine Fusion Monster wouldn’t have done much, against the twin’s backrow which was protected from destruction and Mei and Serena whose backrow was mostly just the Resh Shaddoll Reincarnation that they could easily chain and recur.

“Hey Yuuna.” She heard her dueling partner call her name, snapping her out of the spiral of thoughts that she was falling into. “Do you think that we could use the… Shaddoll engine did you call it? That both Mei and Serena used in our own decks?”

“That… could certainly work.” She mused the thoughts as she placed a hand on her chin and closing her eyes. Shaddoll Fusion would probably be online during most of the match, especially since both duelists that they’ll be facing has their Boss Monsters be Extra Deck monsters, though if they were going first then it will be an entirely different story.

“But I don’t think we should.” She said while shaking her head, and the fusion dimension’s own Yu-boy frowned at her answer.

“Why not?” The boy asked. “The Shaddoll Fusion Monster that required a Dark Monster, El Shaddoll Winda, it has quite an effect doesn’t it? Preventing the opponent from special summoning multiple times a turn could easily win us the game!”

“Winda is sometimes an instant win button, especially if pitted against Ryo’s Cyber Dragons in the case where he goes second.” And wasn’t that true, the amount of combo decks that would simply scoop at the face of a Winda that was summoned in their turn with Schism were numerous, especially considering the fact that Winda has effect destruction immunity.

“So why-”

“For one, running a Shaddoll core requires quite the investment.” She answered the purple haired boy before he could even say his next argument. “Especially in the case of deck space, unless you’re playing cards that could send cards directly from the Extra Deck to the graveyard, you’ll have to play a lot of main deck Shaddoll cards just to get to summon Winda.”

“But what about Mei and Serena.” He argued back. “They seem to be running those cards just fine. And it didn’t seem like they had any sort of problems from adding a lot of those so called main deck Shaddoll cards.”

“That’s probably because they have a week in advance to actually theorize and deck build, that and having some time to familiarise themselves with the cards and their effects.” Gathering the numerous cards in front of her, she started pile shuffling her own cards like Yuri had.

“We only have around a few minutes before the match even begins, do you think that that’ll be enough time for you to know what every single card in the archetype does and how they’ll mesh with your deck? And not to mention how to play them optimally.” 

The boy in front of her turned his face slightly, looking away to not lock eyes with her. “...I think I could though.” She heard him mumble under his breath, and she couldn’t help but sigh at that.

“I know you probably could.” She said, getting his attention to look back at her. “You’re a genius duelist after all, I don’t doubt that even if someone give you a deck that you’re unfamiliar with, you can still steal a win or two against a high level opponent.”

And she truly does believe that. The boy was incredibly bright for a duelist, with the cards that she had given him, he could already think of plays and combo lines to get his Boss Monsters and Aces onto the field, a common sight in her old world, but something that was quite rare in the one that she currently resides on.

The boy visibly brightened at the blatant praise that she had given him, getting a smug smile that made her almost sweatdrop at how easy it was to brighten his mood. Something that was actually quite similar between both him and Mei she noted, Serena as well now that she thought about it. 

Well, she was at least glad that they could gracefully take praises. At least better than most of those Obelisk Blue duelists that she has seen going around gloating about being the bests duelists and all.

“In any case.” She said and she placed her deck down onto the table, snapping the boy that sat in front of her. “I think that it would be better, both for ourselves and the audience, that we just play with our deck as is. We’re more familiar with it aren’t we? I’m sure that we could play it better with the cards that we already have.”

She saw the purple haired boy frowned as a confused look started to form on his face. “The audience? What do they have to do with dueling?”

“Ah, well,” She tried to think of an excuse for the random bit that she added for her short speech. A thought immediately popped into her head, and she latched on to it. “It’s more of a… meta call really.”

“A meta call?” He parroted the words that left her mouth, and she once more started a whole line of explanation.

“It’s more like I don’t personally want everyone to go and run the Shaddoll engine. You saw how it had carried a lot of the match that Mei and Serena had previously, and that’s not even mentioning how splashable it is considering it’s other Fusion Monsters.” Shaddolls were strong, incredibly so, especially in a closed format like the one that this world has.

“Pretty much almost every single deck that plays Fusion Monsters can run it in their deck, even if only a small engine like three copies of Shaddoll Fusion and a single Shaddoll target for the fusion, then they could just use the fusion spell as a free Foolish Burial to send whatever monster while also getting a Fusion Monster on field, provided the opponent has a monster that was summoned from the Extra Deck of course.”

Shaddoll Fusion was an incredibly strong card after all, she doesn’t doubt that the card would see some, if not, a lot of play after the tournament. Especially after the showing of how strong both Winda and Construct was.

“I personally don't play it because I don’t have the space, both Extra Deck and main deck. But also mostly because Dragonmaids already work quite well on their pure variants without an added engine.” She said as she took five cards from the top of her deck, testing a test hand to make sure that her Skill was set correctly.

Two Dragonmaid monsters and a spell, along with two traps, yep, it was still set alright. “If the engine starts getting popularized, then no doubt everyone will start using it. And if anything people will start to get sick of playing the game, be it playing with the engine against it. You’ve seen the lots that play Ancient Gears, yes?”

At the mention of the numerous amount of Ancient Gear players that littered the Academia, the boy took on a thoughtful look. “Yes… and they’re wholly incompetent. And uncreative in their deck building.”

She couldn’t help but snort at the comment that her partner had, he had blatantly insulted the whole of Obelisk Blue, and while normally she would have felt pity for the whole groups who kept challenging her in broad daylight and perhaps argued the fact that they mostly use the deck due to their financial background, she couldn’t exactly refute the fact that it was indeed uncreative of every single one of them to use the same deck.

“In any case.” She finished trailing off, looking out towards the door where she started to hear the loud cheer of the audience. “Seems like we’re up. Are you ready?”

Her partner smiled in response to her question, a savage smile of a person who was undoubtedly an adrenaline junkie. One who specifically gets their fill in the form of dueling, the dimension’s premiere form of sport.

“Oh, Yuuna,” He said with that savage grin plastered on his face. “I’m always ready for a duel.”

And so the both of them walked out of the room, with the red haired girl glancing back shortly to look at the notification that had popped up as they were about to head out and duel.

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Urgent Mission! 

[Special Class Tournament: Grand Finals]

Defeat Fubuki Tenjoin and Ryo Marufuji at a tag duel and win the Special Class Tournament

Rewards: 500000DP, Advanced Dragons Pack Unlocked, Advanced Machine Pack Unlocked, Fusion Fighters Pack Unlocked, Reputation (Yuri) Up, Reputation (Ryo Marufuji), Reputation (Fubuki Tenjoin) Up, Reputation (Academia) Up  

Failure: Reputation (Fubuki Tenjoin) Down, Reputation (Academia) Down, Advanced Dragons Pack Permanently Locked, Advanced Machine Pack Permanently Locked, Fusion Fighters Pack Permanently Locked

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“And here it is ladies and gentlemen! Duelists of all ages!” The announcer announced loudly, his voice reverberating throughout the entire duel colosseum. “After the incredibly intense duel that we had had on the finals, we present to you the pair of duelists who will be going on to the Grand Final! The duelists who will represent the special class, the Kaiser of dueling, Fubuki Tenjoin and Ryo Marufuji!”

The crowd of audience, both duelists and non duelists alike, all screamed and shouted as they cheered at the appearance of the two boys. Both duelists greeted the audience, with Fubuki doing so with more energy than his partner does.

“And the one that they will be facing will be none other than the two best duelists of their own class!” The announcer then pointed towards the other side of the colosseum, where the two boys faced, looking forward to meeting their opponents, already knowing who they were.

The two duelists, of course, knew who they would be facing. They were, after all, friends, and friendly rivals who push each other to develop their dueling skills, to become better, trading tips and cards, though the latter was mostly done by their knowledgeable red haired friend.

“They are none other than the best duelists of their class! The two who had managed to keep scoring the highest score in any and every test! Capable of dueling Obelisk Blues and even duelists twice their age and win!” 

After the long introductory speech given by their teacher, the pair started to walk out onto the middle of the colosseum, receiving a large cheer, louder than the one that the two boys had received when they walked onto the platform.

“These are the Champion, Yuuna! And her partner, Yuri!” The cheer went to become wilder, and she merely gave them a single wave with a wry smile, still not used to this amount of attention being given to her of all people.

Unlike her however, Yuri was unaffected by the many gazes of the spectators that surrounded them, his eyes never wandering from the pair of duelists who were their opponents for this match.

“Yo! Took you all long enough huh?” Fubuki said raising his hand to greet them, grinning from ear to ear while having a glint of excitement in his eyes. Ryo too, looked at them with the same glint, no doubt wanting to also get this introduction over with and duel already.

Seeing that look appearing in the usually silent blue haired boy, she couldn’t help but giggle into her knuckles. “Well sorry, though I guess it doesn’t matter much now does it?” She said with a raised eyebrow, and the boy grinned.

“Yeah! You’re right! We might as well just get started huh.” Saying so, the brown haired duelist brandished his right hand, the duel disk he had activated and the light blade was raised.

“Ah! There’s no need to wait anymore!” Yuri complied and activated his own duel disk, his grin mirrored by his opponent.

Seeing the two boys’ reaction she shook her head, keeping the wry smile on her face as she does so, a notion that seemed to be mirrored by Ryo. “Ah well, might as well right?” She said with a nod of her head, and activated her own duel disk.

Ryo did so as well, and the four participants started.

Their duel has begun.

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“Oi~! Over here!” Grace called out to the others who were in their small group, waving her hand overhead to signal where their empty seats were. They eventually closed in, the four other duelists who had participated in the tournament.

They chose to sit around them, both Mamoru and Edo sitting on one side while Serena and Mei sitting on the other. She ignored the red tinge that the smaller girl had in her eyes, and simply focused on the two boys who sat with them.

“So! Where did you two went off to? We hadn’t seen you since the first round.” The silver haired girl asked the two boys who had participated in the first round of the tournament, asking as to where exactly they had gone.

They didn’t answer at first, or rather the bowl cut boy had puffed out his chest and opened his mouth to answer, only to be cut off by his partner who had participated with him on the match.

“The teachers had called us.” The silver haired Destiny HERO duelist said, answering her question. He glanced, or rather glared, at his partner. “Isn’t that right?”

To which his partner frantically agreed on. “Y-Yes! After our performance at the tournament, professor de Medici had called us for a short meeting!” He shouted aloud, garnering a raised eyebrow from the twins.

“Cronos de Medici? Isn’t he the professor of the Obelisk Blue? Why would he have any business with you two?” Gloria asked with narrowed eyes, suspicious as to the reason why they of all people would be called by the professor of the Obelisk Blue.

“It’s nothing that you should concern yourselves with.” The silver haired duelists brushed them off, and he then changed the topic of conversation. “Why don’t you pry on your… friend instead.” He said pointing towards the teary eyed Mei, who realised that the topic of conversation had fallen onto her, tried to wipe the remaining tears with her sleeves.

“N-no, I’m-I’m fine.” She said with a trembling voice, but regained her composure after a few seconds, looking forward towards the centre of the colosseum with utmost seriousness and concentration.

The twin tailed girl was, of course, upset. Incredibly so in fact. And the reason for her upset was none other than the loss that she and her partner had at their previous match, the one match that would have gotten them to where the two boys were currently standing right now.

She could certainly be mad at her opponent, for having drawn two cards in a row that had certainly outed her entire board, both the Fubuki’s draw of Eltanin and Ryo’s draw of Core were exactly what had won them the game, even if she had known the effects of Return of the Dragon Lords, the outcome would have still been her defeat.

But she couldn’t blame them, no she could not. Luck was after all, an incredibly integral part of the card game, and her opponent simply had some good luck on their side, one that had won them a chance at challenging Yuuna and Yuri at the Grand Finals.

And even without that luck of theirs, they had even managed to stall for several turns on their own, summoning a monster that her own deck have no feasible out to other than drawing her singular copy of Limiter Removal, and they had played their cards incredibly well, better than most would in their given situation.

She couldn’t be angry at her partner, if anything she had been the one who gave them both a fighting chance at the match. What with her being the one who even established the Shaddoll loop in the first place, giving them a way to recur both Winda and Construct every other turn.

No, if there was anyone that she could blame, the one player in their match who had undoubtedly made the most misplays out of all of them was none other than herself.

She had played right directly into Chimeratech Fortress Dragon twice in the same game, the first one had broken her whole board, and the other had cost her the game. She had made miss plays after miss plays, and each made her more impulsive, creating more mistakes in playing the game.

But she wouldn't wallow in her mistakes, certainly not after the per talk that Serena had given her. Though if she was being honest, it wasn’t much of a pep talk in the first place.

The ever stoic girl had cornered her to a wall, slammed her hand over her shoulder and simply told her to, and she quoted the pony-tailed girl, ‘Get over it’ and left her alone in the hallway.

It was… quite amazing to see the partner whom she had shared a loss to simply move on from her defeat so easily, and one which was done in an incredibly important setting at that. After all, this was a tournament, her second ever tournament, and she had another chance at going against her sister figure and mentor at the grand finals once more.

And she had blown that chance.

She was still incredibly angry at herself. The thoughts of ‘what if’s’ kept going through her head, she kept thinking of the many possibilities that could have happened if only she had played her cards differently, if she had played better.

But she knew that there was no use to dwell in her losses, that she should look forward and better herself and learn from her mistakes. It was what her partner had told her, what Serena was doing right now.  

She had harneded her resolve when she had heard Serena’s own cries when she thought she was alone, knowing that like her, her partner had blamed herself for their defeat.

So she’ll do her best, she’ll learn from the many mistakes that she had made, and become a better duelist, one that both Yuuna and Serena would be proud to call friend. “Let’s watch the duel.” She said with all seriousness, eyes locked on to the four duelists on the centre of the colosseum. 

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““““DUEL!!””””

Fubuki Tenjoin & Ryo Marufuji: 8000LP

Yuuna & Yuri: 8000LP

“In the tradition of dueling championships, the challengers will get to go first!” The teacher announced loudly, notifying everyone of the challengers rule, where the apparent challengers get to be the one to set up their board.

Wait what? Seriously?! If she knew about that Yuri would have been the one to get the first turn! Guess she’ll have to do her best at breaking a Red-Eyes’ board with pure Dragonmaids.

“Then I’ll go first!” Fubuki declared loudly, being the first one to take his turn and starting it with the five cards that he had in his hand. “I’ll activate the spell, Red-Eyes Insight!” He said, activating his next card of the turn, which was the Red-Eyes spell that basically searches other Red-Eyes spells or traps. “You already know what this one does, I’ll send Red-Eyes Wyvern from my deck, to add the spell Red-Eyes Fusion!”

Fubuki added his own archetypal fusion spell, and she could already see what kind of play the boy would go for in this situation. Most certainly he would go for Slash Dragon, it was the one with the most flexibility after all, with its targeting negation and all, it was basically the best choice for his first turn play.

Her kingdom for an Ash Blossom, but sadly the only kinds of hand traps that she currently has were only Ghost Ogre and Infib, and she hadn’t found either two of the cards in her opening hand.

“And I’ll activate it!” Fubuki declared so, and slammed the spell card onto his duel disk’s sword projection, and an holographic image of the fusion spell appeared on the field. “And with its effect I’ll fuse both Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Necro Gardna from my deck!”

The two monsters whose names were declared appeared on the field, the red eyed dragon letting out a roar as the necrotic armoured gardna took on a stance, with Fubuki himself raising his hands high.

“O black dragon with eyes of red! Together with the black knight of iron, combine your powers and be reborn anew!” He completed the chant as he swung his arms down. “Fusion Summon! Descend! Red-Eyes Slash Dragon!”

Ryo completed the summoning chant, and a loud draconic roar emanated in the colosseum, the armoured dark dragon descended from the sky, its body garbed in sleek black armour with red orbs and a pair of extremely sharp blades in its arms, its wings spread wide, creating an incredibly ferocious look, being treated as Red-Eyes Black Dragon while its on the field due to the fusion spell’s effect.

Red-Eyes Slash Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 7/Effect: 2800/2400

Done with the Fusion Summon and now under the lock of Red-Eyes Fusion, Fubuki still continued on. “Now I’ll activate the effect of Black Metal Dragon in my hand!” He said, revealing one of the last remaining cards in his hand.

“This card lets me target one ‘Red-Eyes’ monster that I control and equip this monster to it from my hand or field! Giving it an extra 600 points of attack!” The brown haired boy explained the card’s effects and pointed to none other than his fusion summoned monster. 

“I’ll equip it to Red-Eyes Slash Dragon!” And with the silhouette of the small black metallic dragon appearing on top of the armoured dragon briefly, the monster was then equipped, giving it a boost in attack and also turning on its targeting protection.

Red-Eyes Slash Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 7/Effect: 3400/2400

“And with that I’ll set two cards, and I’ll be ending my turn.” Fubuki said, and the turn player was then passed on to her, ending with a board of Red-Eyes Slash Dragon equipped with Black Metal Dragon who would float into any Red-Eyes card if used for the cost of the activation of the targeting protection, two cards as his backrow and a single card in his hand.

For modern standards, it wasn’t much for a board. In fact, it doesn’t even have a single form of interaction with the opponent’s board, though the set card could possibly be one, only a form of targeting protection and a whole lot of floating.

But for this world, this dimesnion’s standards, this was pretty much full combo, for Red-Eyes at least. A board that only an incredibly talented duelists with tons of experience could make, and one that Fubuki had made to combat her board.

In all honesty, the only thing that might seem problematic would be the fact that Red-Eyes Slash Dragon would be at 3600 attack if it resolves the equipping effect, making it higher than her Sheou, but overall, she was quite sure that she could break the board that had just been built. 

And with the cards that she has on hand, she could certainly do so. “Then it’s my turn. I draw.” She drew her card for the turn, and checked the card that she had just drawn. Oh hey infib, just in time drawing you right after a whole board had been set.

Not that the card would have done much in the situation, the brown haired boy hadn’t even activated any on field monster effects anyway, it would have been a dead card. But no matter, onto her plays for the turn.

Technically she could just shotgun it and negate the effect of Slash Dragon since she controls no card on the field, possibly negating its effects and not letting it equip the Gardna in grave at the Battle Phase.

But that wouldn’t do much, and he could just negate it since it targets, and although that would let her do more damage, it was only by a small amount, that and pitching Black Metal would let him search something and get Gardna on the field with Slash’s floating effect.

“I’ll normal summon Chamber Dragonmaid.” Placing the card onto her duel disk, the duster wielding Dark Dragon appeared onto the field, swinging both her tail and duster as she performed a curtsy.

Chamber Dragonmaid - Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Effect: 500/1800

“I’ll be activating Chamber’s effect, if she’s normal or special summoned, I can add one ‘Dragonmaid’ spell or trap card from my deck to my hand.” She said, explaining the monster’s on summon effect.

“And in response, I’ll activate Red-Eyes Fang With Chain! Targeting my Red-Eyes Slash Dragon and allowing it to attack twice!” Fubuki shouted out with his fist raised up, flipping up the set card that he had and revealing it to be Red-Eyes’ signature form of disruption.

Oh so he had a form of disruption then, she had thought that it would have been something like Return of the  Red-Eyes or Red-Eyes Spirit for even more recursion. Her opponent doesn’t immediately shotgun the effect to take her Chamber Dragonmaid, as it would only lower the armoured dragon’s attack to a mere 500, and the chain resolves.

“I’ll be adding Dragonmaid Welcome to my hand.” She said, adding the continuous spell card and shuffling the cards in her hand, indirectly showing that she had already drawn the fusion spell by not adding it with the effect of Chamber.

There was no doubt that Fubuki would activate the effect of Red-Eyes Fang With Chain the moment she Fusion Summoned Sheou, and in turn she would activate Sheou in response to negate it. Doing so would get her House, which wouldn’t have enough attack points to actually punch through his Slash Dragon which was equipped with Black Metal Dragon.

She couldn’t help but grin at the play that the boy had made, a game plan already forming with the cards that she had in hand. “Now I’ll activate Dragonmaid Hospitality, special summoning one ‘Dragonmaid’ monster from my hand in defence position and sending one ‘Dragonmaid’ monster with the same attribute but a different Level from my deck to the grave.”

She revealed the monster that she would special summon, and consequently, the monster that she would be sending to the graveyard. “I’ll special summon Kitchen Dragonmaid.” The whisk bearing Fire Dragon then appeared, swishing her tail as she bowed towards her opponents. 

Kitchen Dragonmaid - Fire/Dragon/Level 3/Effect: 500/1700

“Since I special summoned a Fire ‘Dragonmaid’, I’ll send the Level 8 Fire Dragonmaid Tinkhec to my grave.” She sent the monster that was basically the archetype’s own battle trick to the graveyard.

“Now Kitchen’s effect! Since she’s special summoned I can add one ‘Dragonmaid’ monster from my deck to my hand except a copy of herself, and then I send one ‘Dragonmaid’ monster from my hand to the grave.”

She took a card from her deck, and revealed it to her opponents. “I’ll add Nurse Dragonmaid, and I’ll send her to the graveyard.” She said as she added the Earth Dragonmaid to her hand, and then discarding it to fulfil the effect of Kitchen.

“And now I’ll activate the continuous spell, Dragonmaid Welcome!” She shouted out as she played the card that she added with Chamber’s effect, the holographic imagery of the continuous spell appearing before her as it glowed.

“While this card is on the field, all monsters that I control gain 100 attack and defence for each ‘Dragonmaid’ that I control.” She explained the card’s attack boosting effect, one that wouldn’t really matter in most situations due to how small the boost was.

“And since you control two, that means that your monsters gain 200.” Ryo noted, and the two monsters that she controlled glowed as their attacks were boosted by the continuous spell’s effect.

Chamber Dragonmaid - Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Effect: 700/2000

Kitchen Dragonmaid - Fire/Dragon/Level 3/Effect: 700/1900

But of course, she wasn’t playing a single copy of the card for the stat boosting effect. “Now I will activate Welcome’s second effect.” She declared, the holographic projection of the card shining once more. “If I control two or more ‘Dragonmaid’ monsters, I can target one ‘Dragonmaid’ card in the graveyard except Welcome, and add it to my hand!“

The only cards that she could add currently were Hospitality and Tinkhec, and since she had no high Level Dragons in her hand for the fusion materials, and Hospitality was a hard once per turn, her choice was obvious.

“I’ll add Dragonmaid Tinkhec to my hand.” Her duel disk spat out the card from her graveyard, and she added it to the repertoire of cards that she had on her hand. “And now I’ll activate the fusion spell, Dragonmaid Changeover!”

As she had activated the fusion spell, she declared the materials that she would use, those being none other than the cards that she already have on board and in hand. “I will fuse Kitchen Dragonmaid on my field and Dragonmaid Tinkhec in my hand!”

The black and red Fire Dragon spun appeared onto the field, and spun around her humanoid counterpart, their forms turning transparent and ethereal, before fusing into one singular large monster.

She swung her hand down and snapped her fingers. “Fusion Summon! Appear! Dragonmaid Sheou!” With the fusion chant done and completed, the black and white dragon let out a sharp cry, unfurling its large wings and floating to her side. 

Dragonmaid Sheou - Light/Dragon/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 3500/2000

The monster glowed slightly, its attack being boosted by the effect of the continuous spell that she had on the field.

Dragonmaid Sheou - Light/Dragon/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 3700/2200

Now of course, was the time where Fubuki would activate his trap card’s effect in response to the fusion summon of her monster. “Now I’ll activate the effect of Red-Eyes Fang With Chain! Sending it to the graveyard to target Sheou in order to equip it to my Slash Dragon!”

“In response I’ll activate the effect of Sheou to negate it, and if I do I’ll return her to the Extra Deck to summon one ‘House Dragonmaid’ from my Extra Deck.” She chained the omni negate that was Sheou.

Here was how the game would play out.

The chain would resolve and she would summon House, who wouldn’t have enough attack to go through the Black Metal Dragon booster Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. She would have moved on towards the Battle Phase, having Chamber tag in for the Tinkhec that was in the graveyard, triggering House’s targeting destruction effect which would be met by Fubuki’s own targeting negation.

Such a play would eventually end with her having only Tinkhec and Dragonmaid Welcome on field, and Fubuki’s board would not be broken whatsoever, leaving enough monsters with big numbers on field for Ryo to simply OTK with whatever flavour of Cyber Dragons he has on hand.

But really, that was something that she’ll have to play over. “I’ll activate the effect of Dragonmaid Changeover in the graveyard, I’ll target Chamber Dragonmaid and return it to the hand to add back the spell to my hand.”

The black dress wearing Dragonmaid bowed, making her exit as she was returned to her hand, and adding the fusion spell back to her hand. “The effect of House Dragonmaid activates! I’ll target Red-Eyes Slash Dragon to destroy it!”

“Then I’ll chain the effect of Red-Eyes Slash Dragon!” Fubuki declared, chaining his monster’s effect. “I’ll send the equipped Black Metal Dragon to the grave to negate the effect of House Dragonmaid and destroy it! Goodbye House Dragonmaid!” He said with a cheeky grin while waving his hand.

That is, if she hadn’t had an extender in her hand. “And I’ll activate the quick-play spell, Quick Launch!” She declared and revealed the last unknown card that she had on her hand, that being none other than a card that would let her get another body onto the field. 

“This card allows me to special summon one ‘Rokket’ monster from my deck, but it cannot attack, and it is also destroyed during the End Phase!” With neither Ryo nor Fubuki having any form of interaction in their hand to continue the chain of effects, or any other form of interaction on the field, the chain resolves.

“I’ll special summon Rokket Tracer in defence position.” She took the card from her deck, and placed it onto her duel disk, the red bullet based Dragon then appeared, zooming on towards her field at high speeds.

Rokket Tracer- Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Tuner/Effect: 1600/1000

The red and green bullet based monster also received a boost from Welcome, getting an extra 200 points of both attack and defence with the effect of Dragonmaid Welcome as there were two Dragonmaids in the field.

Rokket Tracer- Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Tuner/Effect: 1800/1200

Sheou let out another cry as she negated the effect, transmorphing into her humanoid form, taking the time fixing her glasses as she did so.

House Dragonmaid - Light/Dragon/Fusion/Level 9/Effect: 3000/2000

The newly summoned Fusion Monster too, then glowed slightly under the effect of Welcome, having its attack and defence be boosted by 200 points.

House Dragonmaid - Light/Dragon/Fusion/Level 9/Effect: 3200/2200

The chain continues, the second in the link being the negation of Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and with that the effect of House Dragonmaid was negated, and the classical maid dress wearing Dragonmaid was then destroyed.

Fubuki then raised his hand once more as he activated a card effect once more. “If Black Metal Dragon is sent from the field to the graveyard, I can add one ‘Red-Eyes’ card from my deck to my hand!” The brown haired duelist declared, explaining the monster’s graveyard effect.

 

“I’ll chain the Quick Effect of Rokket Tracer. Which allows me to target one face-up card that I control and destroy it, and if I do, I can then special summon one ‘Rokket’ monster from my deck except another copy of Tracer, but I cannot special summon monsters from the Extra Deck for the rest of the turn except Dark Monsters/ I’ll target Dragonmaid Welcome.” She declared, explaining the Tuner Monster’s Quick Effect to which she used to chain.

There was no other card chained to its effect, and the chain resolves, and the first to resolve was none other than Tracer’s effect, destroying Welcome in order to fulfil the cost. “I’ll special summon Exploderokket Dragon in attack position.”

The continuous spell was destroyed, and from its ashes another monster shot out, that being none other than an extremely large bullet-based brown Dark Dragon with green hard light wings, the monster’s mouth raging with flames as it let out a roar.

Exploderokket Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Effect: 2000/2000

And now with the continuous spell gone from the field, the boost in both attack and defence disappeared, lowering the stats of all of her monsters back to what they normally were.

Rokket Tracer- Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Tuner/Effect: 1600/1000

He took a few seconds to decide what card to add to his hand, before deciding on what card to add. “I’ll add another copy of the spell, Red-Eyes Insight to my hand!” He said, showing the card to them all to see and adding it, basically adding another copy of Red-Eyes Fusion or Red-Eyes Fang With Chain, whichever really.

Had this been another format, where Synchros and Links could be summoned and all, she would have summoned a different monster instead of Exploderokket, that being any other Level 4 Rokket monster, and going for something like Borreload Savage Dragon or Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon since she could tune for a Level 8.

But this was basically a fusion format, and since she’s locked to Dark Monsters thanks to the effect of Tracer, she’ll have to summon the next best thing. “Now I’ll activate Dragonmaid Changeover once again! This time I’ll fuse Rokket Tracer on my field and Chamber Dragonmaid in my hand!” 

Declaring both fusion materials the two monsters went and became motes of light that intertwined with one another, she held out her hand outwards, pointing towards the swirling mass of light that was her soon to be summoned Fusion Monster. “The two forlorn anger that lives in the network, surpass the root of evil and become one!”

She waved her hand outwards and snapped her fingers, finishing her chant. “Fusion Summon! Appear! Borreload Furious Dragon!” The monster that appeared was a mechanical dragon with light purple wings of energy, its torso being that of a mechanical revolver, the base of its theme and whole archetype, and its body emitting purple wisps of energy, the monster letting out a draconic roar that shook the whole colosseum.

Borreload Furios Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 3000/2500

Slash Dragon wasn’t something that she could beat over if she declared an attack since it would gain 200 attack if it equips the Necro Gardna in the grave, so she’ll have to destroy it in another way then. “I’ll activate the effect of Borreload Furious Dragon! As a Quick Effect I can target one monster that I control and one card that my opponent controls and destroy them!”

She named the cards that she would target, that being none other than the large monster she controlled. “I’ll target my Exploderokket Dragon and your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and destroy both of them! Destruction Trigger!”

“Che! I’ll reveal my other set card!” The brown haired duelist declared so, and flipped up his other face-down card. “Return of the Red-Eyes!” He said as he revealed the continuous trap up, the card shining as it was activated.

“If I control a ‘Red-Eyes’ monster, I can special summon one Normal Monster in my graveyard and special summon it!” He explained the continuous trap’s effect, and took out a card from his graveyard to show the target that he would summon with its effect, and summons the monster in defence position.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Normal: 2400/2000

The chain continues to resolve, and both Dark Dragons that she controlled let out their respective roars, with Exploderokket turning into a small ball of energy that was inserted into Furious’ chamber, and the Fusion Monster then shot out a burst of darkness towards its target, destroying Red-Eyes Slash Dragon once more.

It’s quite annoying that she couldn’t really deal any form of damage this turn, but at the very least she could clear the board. “Battle.” She declared, moving on towards the Battle Phase. “I’ll attack Red-Eyes Black Dragon with Borreload Furious Dragon.” The purple dragon gave out a roar that shook the air, and dashed towards her designated opponent, its horns emitting purple lightning as it attacked her opponent’s only monster.

Both Dark Dragons let out their roars, each shooting their respective attacks against each other. But as their attacks met, the flames that came out of the black dragon was overpowered by the purple lightning that her monster emitted, continuing to hit the monster directly and destroying it.

SHe moved off from the Battle Phase, moving on towards the Main Phase 2. “I’ll set one card.” She placed a set card onto her field, the Infinite Impermanence that she had drawn for turn, and placed it onto the middle column. “And I’ll go to the End Phase, and activate the effect of Exploderokket Dragon.”

She declared the activation of the Rokket archetype’s floating effect, and explained it to her opponents. “At the End Phase, if this card is in the graveyard because it was destroyed on the field by battle or card effects and sent there this turn, I can special summon one ‘Rokket’ monster from my deck except a copy of itself.”

“Then I’ll also activate the effect of Red-Eyes Wyvern in my graveyard!” Fubuki declared, chaining his own monster’s effect in the End Phase in response to Exploderokket. “I’ll banish it to special summon Red-Eyes Slash Dragon!”

With the effects being chained together, the monster that was destroyed this turn was revived, giving out its dragonic roars as it reappeared onto the field.

Red-Eyes Slash Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 7/Effect: 2800/2400

The chain resolved, and she chose her target. “I’ll special summon Silverrokket Dragon in atatck position.” The monster that she summoned was none other than a shining silver dragon, as the archetype goes, it’s form resembles a bullet, with light purple wings of energy like the one before it.

Silverrokket Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Effect: 1900/100

And with that, she ended her turn. Passing with two monsters on the field, one of which being a Fusion Monster with reasonable attack, a set card for her backrow, and no cards in her hand, her form of interaction being Borreload Furious’ spell speed two destruction and a monster negate, and potential spell trap negate, in the form of Infinite Impermanence. 

-

“Amazing… she managed to easily destroy all of Fubuki’s monsters! But now they’re all back! Isn’t that really amazing!” Grace said animatedly pointing towards the ongoing duel, turning with a wide smile and sparkling eyes and looking to the other onlookers that were beside her.

“I guess so…” Serena nodded slowly, turning her head back to look at the centre of the colosseum where the duel kept on raging. “But in any case, those cards… I don’t believe I’ve seen her use them before.”

Mei raised an eyebrow at her partner’s question, taking a few seconds to understand what exactly was she talking about before figuring out what it was that she was asking. “Oh! It’s those Rokket cards huh?”

The indigo haired girl nodded her head. “I don’t think I’ve seen her use them before, although seeing that they have some synergy with that Fusion Monster…”

“I’m pretty sure they share an archetype.” She answered her partner’s question. “The Rokkets and that Borreload Furious monster, they seem to float when destroyed, be it by battle or card effects, and the Fusion Monster becomes an advantage when using it.”

The ponytailed girl hummed, placing a hand on her chin. “So they get to destroy a card on the field, and on the End Phase they get a monster in return.” She narrowed her eyes, a small frown forming. “...so she was holding back on us?”

 In response to that, Mei shook her head. “No, I don’t… I don’t think so at least.” She knew of Yuuna’s ability, the one gifted to her by a God, being able to create cards and even whole archetypes from this air, the mission that she was given, and she started to doubt what she had said.

Even after years of training, of learning under her, Mei had gotten quite confident at her dueling ability. She was still nowhere near Yuuna’s level, she certainly knows that, but her recent defeat, along with the question that her dueling partner had asked, brought up a question that made her stomach churn.

Just exactly how strong was Yuuna?

-

“Now it’s my turn. I draw!” Ryo then started his turn, drawing his card in the Draw Phase and starting with six cards in his hand. The blue haired duelists took some time as he checked the cards that he had, thinking on the spot of the plays that he would do that could turn around the situation.

“On the Standby Phase, I’ll activate the effect of Return of the Red-Eyes!” Ryo declared immediately as he moved on from the Draw Phase. “Since I control a ‘Red-Eyes’ monster, I’ll special summon back Red-Eyes Black Dragon in attack position.”

With a wave of his hand, the effect of the continuous trap resolves, and the titular red-eyed dragon appeared onto the field, the monster letting out a roar as it stood by next to its armoured fusion counterpart.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Normal: 2400/2000

With that done, Ryo then moved on towards his Main Phase, and start his actual play for the turn. “I’ll start by activating the effect of Cyber Dragon Nachster! I can discard one other monster from my hand to special summon it!” The blue haired boy said, revealing the monster in his hand.

“I’ll discard Cyber Dragon from my hand, and special summon Cyber Dragon Nachster in defence position!” He placed the monster card onto his duel disk, and summoned it, letting the futuristic sleek Cyber Dragon appeared onto the field.

Cyber Dragon Nachster - Light/Machine/Level 1/Effect: 200/200

“Now Nachster’s effect! If Cyber Dragon Nachster is normal or special summoned, I can target one Machine Monster with 2100 attack or defence in my graveyard, and special summon it!” He declared so, and targeted the one legal target that he had.

“I will be special summoning Cyber Dragon from my graveyard!” He said, running out his signature monster onto the field, special summoning the monster that he had pitched with Nachster’s own innate summoning effect.

Cyber Dragon - Light/Machine/Level 5/Effect: 2100/1600

“If I activate this effect, for the rest of this turn, I cannot special summon monsters other than Machine Monsters.” The boy explained further, telling them of how using the monster’s effect xeno locks him into summoning only machines for the rest of the turn. 

Which means that he couldn’t just crash Fubuki’s Red-Eyes Alternative Black Dragon to float into a 4800 attack Red-Eyes Black Dragon to just punch through her monsters, that’s nice to know at least.

“And now I’ll activate the spell, Cybernetic Horizon!” Saying so, the Cyber style duelist placed the card on his duel disk, activating the spell card that had undoubtedly won him the game on the last match.

“This card allows me to send two Dragons and or Machine ‘Cyber’ monsters with different attributes to the graveyard, one each from my hand or field, and deck. And it allows me to add one dragon or machine ‘Cyber’ monster from my deck to my hand!” He said, shouting out the explanation for the effect of the spell card.

And of course he didn’t activate the spell card in the middle column, with this he can pop off quite far. “I’ll send the Fire Cyber Phoenix from my hand, and send Cyber Dragon Herz from my deck to the graveyard-” Ryo then sent the two monsters to the graveyard, sending both cards that have graveyard effects.

“To add Cyber Dragon Core to my hand!” The blue haired boy revealed the card that he added to his hand, that being another searcher for the archetype, one that requires a normal summon.

Ryo shuffled the three remaining cards in his hand, and continued on with the spells effect. “And if I added a ‘Cyber’ monster with Cybernetic Horizon’s effect, I can send one Machine ‘Cyber’ Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck to the graveyard!”

He once more took a card, this time from his Extra Deck, and revealed it for all to see. “I will send Cyber Twin Dragon to the graveyard!” Ryo sent what was arguably the Fusion Monster that would usually close out games in the olden days to the graveyard, and continued.

“Now the effect of Cyber Dragon Herz! If this card is sent to the graveyard, I can add one other ‘Cyber Dragon’ from my deck or graveyard to my hand!” He said, explaining the monster’s graveyard effect.

“I will add a second copy of Cyber Dragon to my hand.” Ryo said, adding another copy of the regular Cyber Dragon onto his hand. With only one monster zone left on the field, and a normal summonable searcher in hand, she already has her target.

“And now I’ll normal summon Cyber Dragon Core!” With that, Ryo summoned his monster and used up his normal summon for the turn. “And I’ll activate it’s effect! If this card is normal summoned, I can add one ‘Cyber’ spell or trap from my deck to my hand!”

“In response, I’ll activate my set card!” She shouted out, motioning her hands upwards and snapping her fingers, and the one face-down card that she had on the field was then flipped face-up revealing the Infinite Impermanence that she had drawn for her turn.

“Infinite Impermanence!” She shouted out its name as the card glowed. “It allows me to target one face-up monster my opponent controls and negate its effects until the end of this turn! I’ll target your Cyber Dragon Core!” Fubuki’s eyes widened at hearing the trap card’s effect, knowing what it would do and turning to look at his partner.

Only to see that the blue haired boy had a small smile starting to grow on his face. “Is that so? Then I’ll also activate the quick-play spell, Cyberload Fusion!” Ryo shouted out, chaining his quick-play fusion spell in retaliation, having figured out the weakness of Infib from simply listening to her explanation of it once.

“With this card’s effect, I will Fusion Summon one Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck that lists a ‘Cyber Dragon’ monster as material by shuffling fusion materials listed on it into the deck from among my cards that are on my field and or face-up banished!”

Seeing as the boy currently has no banished Cyber Dragons, or Machine Monsters for that part, realistically the only monsters that he could summon would be a pretty middling Chimeratech with attack around or lower than 3000, another copy of Cyber End Dragon, or perhaps Cyber Eternity Dragon to turtle up just like he did on the previous match.

There was no need to summon Cyber End Dragon, though she doesn’t even know if the boy ran more than a single copy of the card, but it would simply be a monster that would fall to Furious’ SS2 destruction effect since it has no protection whatsoever.

So what exactly was he summoning in this situation? No other cards or their effects were chained, and the fusion spell was activated, and as if hearing what she had thought, Ryo declared the monsters that she would fuse with its effect.

“I’ll fuse all three Cyber Dragon, Cyber Dragon Nachster, and Cyber Dragon Core, who are both treated as ‘Cyber Dragon’, on my field!” The blue haired boy declared, raising his hand upwards as the three mechanical dragons were all consumed by the vortex or blue and purple, sparks of electricity and lightning striking the three monsters. 

“O mechanical dragons of light, combine your might and bring an end to an era!” He then raised his right hand, pointing upwards towards the sky, before bringing his hand down. “Fusion Summon! Appear! The ultimate machine! Cyber End Dragon!”

In a burst of blue light, the three headed mechanical dragon appeared on the field, sparking with yellow sparks of electricity as it spread its large metallic wings, raising all three of its heads high upon the heavens and letting out a roar.

Cyber End Dragon - Light/Machine/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 4000/2800

The chain continued to resolve backwards, and with no face-up card to target, the negation effect of Infinite Impermanence fizzles, and the searching effect of Cyber Dragon Core resolved even with it leaving the field, being shuffled back into the deck alongside the other Cyber monsters that was on Ryo’s and Fubuki’s field.

“The card that I will be adding with Cyber Dragon Core’s effect is…” As if to add dramatic effect, Ryo purposefully took a few seconds to decide what card he would add to his hand, before soon revealing it for all to see.

“The quick-play spell, Cyber Eternal.” The boy said with a small cheeky grin, and she couldn’t help but snort at the card that he had added to his hand, figuring out what the boy was planning to do with that card.

“So it’s like that huh…” She said as she narrowed her eyes, figuring out what the boy was planning to use the card for. “The quick-play archetypal reborn spell that only works for Cyber Fusion Monsters, meaning that you can out the destruction effect of my Borreload Furious Dragon. Not to mention, like Return of the Dragon Lords, it has a graveyard effects that protects Cyber Fusion Monsters from destruction, be it battle or card effects.”

She said the latter mostly to inform her partner of the card’s effect, but the hypothetical scenario that she described wasn’t exactly correct.

Because Ryo was currently under the lock that was Cyberload Fusion, forcing it so that he could only battle with the monster that was summoned with its effect this turn. This means that should she pop it with the effect of Borreload Furious, and he chooses to revive it with his added Cyber Eternal, that means that he wouldn’t be able to attack this turn.

So that was exactly what she was going to do, should he choose to move on towards the Battle Phase that is. After all, there was no real use in trying to shotgun her one and only remaining form of disruption when there’s a chance that her opponent might have some form of extension.

But as it turns out, he does not. Out of the two cards that remained as unknowns, it seems that Ryo did not have any other form of extension to further his plays. “Battle!” He declared, moving on towards the Battle Phase immediately to attack.

“I’ll attack your borreload Furious Dragon with my Cyber End Dragon! Eternal Evolution Burst!” The three heads of the mechanical dragon opened each of the maw according to its summoner’s wishes, shooting a beam of light towards her Fusion Monster.

“I’ll activate the effect of Borreload Furious Dragon!” She declared as she chained the monster’s spell speed two destruction effect to the attack declaration. “I’ll target my Silverrokket Dragon and your Cyber End Dragon to destroy both! Destruction Trigger!”

Once more, both of her Dark Dragons let out their roars, the shining silver Rokket monster turning into a small ball of light that was then absorbed to the revolver core of her Fusion Monster, and said Fusion Monster then let out a shot of energy towards Cyber End Dragon.

Without any form of protection or interruption, the bolt of energy hits the ginormous Cyber Fusion Monster, said monster letting out a mechanical cry as it was destroyed and exploded into particles of light.

“Che!” Ryo grunted as a gust of wind hit him, a result from the realistic hologram being destroyed. “Then I’ll activate the quick-play spell, Cyber Eternal! And just like you explained earlier, I’ll revive Cyber End Dragon!”

Raising his arm high, the follower of the Cyber Style called out to his monster once again. “Return! Cyber End Dragon!” He shouted out, and the gigantic three headed Cyber Dragon made its way back onto the field. 

Cyber End Dragon - Light/Machine/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 4000/2800

“Alright!” Fubuki shouted out, raising his right hand with a grin at seeing the giant Cyber Dragon returning to the field. “Now with this we can clear out Yuuna’s monsters!” 

Unlike his incredibly excited partner however, Ryo merely frowned and narrowed his eyes, seemingly realising the missplay that he had done. The blue haired duelist clicked his tongue, seemingly irritated. “I’ll set two cards, and I’ll end my turn.” 

“Then on the End Phase I’ll activate the effect of Silverrokket Dragon in my graveyard.” She declared so as they entered the End Phase. “Since it was destroyed by card effects this turn, I can special summon a different ‘Rokket’ monster from my deck.”

She took out a card from her deck, and revealed it for everyone to see. Unlike Mei and Serena who ran the same engine, Yuri doesn’t run a Rokket engine unlike her, so summoning Rokket Tracer wouldn’t do much in this situation. 

But since she doesn’t run many other targets, she’ll have to make do. It’ll do nicely since it’s also a Dark Monster and all. “I’ll special summon a second copy of Rokket Tracer in defence position.”

The Rokket monster that she summoned was the exact copy of the monster that she had summoned on her turn with Quick Launch. The red and green bullet based Dragon then appeared once more, zooming on towards her field at high speeds.

Rokket Tracer- Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Tuner/Effect: 1600/1000

And with that, Ryo finished his turn without attacking nor dealing any form of damage whatsoever. Ending with a board of Cyber End Dragon, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Red-Eyes Slash Dragon as his only monsters, the latter not having its targeting negation, and three set of backrow, two of them being an unknown, the other being Return of the Red-Eyes, and a single card remaining in his hand, and it was the known Cyber Dragon that was added with Cyber Dragon Herz.

“Wha-Ryo! Why didn’t you-”

“The effect of Cyberload Fusion.” He said without looking towards his partner, eyes locked onto Yuri, whose turn was about to begin. “It makes it so that I can only attack with a monster that was summoned with its effect this turn.”

Understanding what his partner was implying, the brown haired duelist clicked his tongue. “So since that Cyber End Dragon was summoned by Cyber Eternal, it couldn’t attack huh. Dang, I forgot about that part.”

“So did I, so we’ll have to hold on for the next turn.” 

“Alright~ now it’s my turn!” Yuri exclaimed happily, placing his hand over his duel disk with a large grin. “I draw!” He said as he drew his car for the turn with dramatic flair, starting out his turn with six cards in his hands.

The Fusion Dimension’s own Yu-boy took a second to look at the cards that were in his hand, and numerous lines of plays went through his mind, and the one line of play that he chose was one that would grant him his path to victory.

“I’ll start by activating the spell, Predapractice!” The purple haired boy played his first card, it being none other than the new spell card that he had added to his deck. “This card allows me to special summon one ‘Predaplant’ monster from my deck, then I can add one ‘Predap’ card from my deck to my hand except another copy of Predapractice!”

Out of the other five cards that was in his hand, he took one out and revealed it. “I will be special summoning Predaplant Spinodionaea in attack position!” He then placed the card’s onto his duel disk’s sword projection, and summoned the Predaplant monster that was a mix of a spinosaurus and the bug eating Dionaea muscipula, the Plant Monster letting out a wretched roar as it appeared onto the field.

Predaplant Spinodionaea - Dark/Plant/level 4/Effect: 1800/0

“And now with the spell’s effect, I’ll be adding Predaplant Chlamydosundew to my hand!” He said, revealing the Plant Monster to his hand, and as he does he shuffled the five cards that he has.

“Now Spinodionea’s effect!” He declared with a smile. “If this card is normal or special summoned, I can target one face-up monster that my opponent controls and place one Predator Counter on it!”

The purple haired boy then points towards his target, that being none other than the giant Fusion Monster that stands in their opponents’ side of the field. “I’ll target Cyber End Dragon!” With the target given, the Plant Monster gave out a hideous cry, and vines started to grow out from the mechanical Fusion monster, making it let out a whine as it does so.

As the Predaplant’s counter gimmick was given, the purple haired boy went and explained exactly what it does. “If a monster with a Predator Counter has an original Level of 2 or higher, it’s Level is changed to 1!”

The vines that grew out from the Fusion Monster constructed even further, making the monster let out another cry of pain as it did so. 

Cyber End Dragon - Light/Machine/Fusion/Level 1/Effect: 4000/2800

“Now from my hand, I will be activating a quick-play spell, Predaplast!” He said, revealing the quick-play spell from his hand an playing it. “This card lets me reveal any number of ‘Predap’ cards in my hand, then I can target that number of face-up monsters that my opponent controls, and place one Predator Counter on each!”

Saying so, he then revealed two cards in his hand, one of which being the recently added Chlamydosundew. “I’ll reveal Predaplant Chlamydosundew, and Predaplant Byblisp in my hand, to place a Predator Counter each on your remaining monsters!”

Vines spurted out from the two Dragon Monsters that was on the boys’ field, each eliciting a cry from the two red-eyed dragons. And just like the Cyber End Dragon next to them, their Levels were reduced to one.

Red-Eyes Slash Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 1/Effect: 2800/2400

Red-Eyes Black Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 1/Normal: 2400/2000

“And now I’ll be normal summoning Predaplant Chlamydosundew!” He said as he placed the card, and the realistic holographic of the monster that is based on the Drosera sessilifolia, a sundew plant, and the frilled-neck lizard which was also known as Chlamydosaurus kingii appeared onto the field. 

…Listen you get a lot of plant and reptile trivia from hanging around Yuri alright. Knowing what his monsters are based on is just something that you’ll learn if you have him around for a while. 

Predaplant Chlamydosundew - Dark/Plant/level 2/Effect: 600/200

“And now that Predaplant Chlamydosundew is on the field, I’ll be activating its effect!” He said so with glee, spreading his hands as he does so. “During my Main Phase, I can Fusion Summon one Dark Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck using this card on the field, and monsters from my hand, field, and or monsters with Predator Counter that my opponent controls as fusion materials! And with Chlamydosundew on field, all monsters with Predator Counters that I use as fusion materials are treated as Dark!”

As he declared so, the two boys that they were facing couldn’t help but widen their eyes in shock, with Ryo snapping his head towards his Fusion Monster. “I will fuse my Predaplant Chlamydosundew, and your Cyber End Dragon!”

Saying so the boy raised his hand, and the reptilian Plant Monster let out a cry, the vines that contrasted around the Fusion Monster became stricter, a mechanical whine came from the monster as it did so.

The two monsters were then pulled, space contracting itself and merging them into one singular being. The purple boy then raised his hand high and chanted. “O flower that traps insects with alluring aroma! Become one and come out from hell with a new threat!” 

He then clasped his hands together, completing the fusion chant to summon his Ace Monster with a deranged smile on his face. “Fusion Summon! Appear! Dragon with poisonous fangs! Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!” 

The Fusion Monster that he summon let out a roar, the multiple orbs that ornamented its body shining ominously as its green eyes glowed, its long vine-like tail swishing around as the monster spread its claws.

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon - Dark/Fusion/Dragon/level 8/Effect: 2800/2000

At the sight of Yuri’s Ace Monster being summoned onto the field, the crowd gasped in shock at the monster’s terrifying appearance. That shock soon turned to excitement as cheers and hurrahs erupted from the audience, realising that not only had Yuri summoned his Ace monster, but he had also removed Ryo’s own.

“Now the effect of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon activates!” He shouted out. “If this card is Fusion Summoned, I can make this card gain attack equal to one opponent’s special summoned monster until the end of this turn!”

The purple haired Yu-boy then points towards a monster in Ryo and Fubuki’s field that had the highest attack, that being none other than Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. “Since you control Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, I’ll have Starving Venom Fusion Dragon gain 2800 attack!”

The two pairs of both shoulder and hip pauldrons that the Dragon Fusion Monster had opened with a sickeningly wet sound, revealing a row of green plant-like teeth, to which then formed wings of purple energy that was pulled from none other than the red-eyed Fusion Monster.

Starving Venom Fusion Dragon - Dark/Fusion/Dragon/level 8/Effect: 5600/2000

“Now, battle!” He said with a grin on his face. “Sorry Yuuna, this’ll hurt a bit. I’ll attack your Red-Eyes Black Dragon with my Predaplant Spinodionaea!” Declaring the attack target, the Plant Monster let out a loud whine, rushing forwards to meet its imminent doom.

The monster crashed, before it’s may could even reach the black dragon, the monster was incinerated by the red-eyed dragon’s flames. “The effect of Red-Eyes SLash Dragon activates!” Ryo declared the Fusion Monster’s effect. 

“When a ‘Red-Eyes’ battles, I can target one Warrior Monster in my graveyard and equip it to this card as an equip spell that gives this card 200 attack! I’ll equip Necro Gardna!” The silhouette of the Dark Warrior appeared briefly above the armoured dragon, giving the monster a boost in attack and turning on its targeting negation effect, making the spell speed 2 destruction effect of Furious Dragon useless in a sense.

Red-Eyes Slash Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 1/Effect: 3000/2400

The Battle Step moved on to Damage Calculation, and the two of them received damage as the monster crashed. “Che!” “Kh!” They both grunted as they received the first damage dealt in the match.

Yuuna & Yuri: 7400LP

“Spinodionaea’s effect activates!” Yuri claimed, dusting himself off from some of the dust that the Plant Monster’s destruction made. “If this card battled a monster with an equal or lower Level, I can special summon one ‘Predaplant’ monster from my deck except another copy of Spinodionaea.”

Saying so, he took out a card from his deck and showed it. “I’ll be special summoning Predaplant Darlingtonia Cobra in attack position!” He placed the card onto the field, and the combination of a cobra and the Darlingtonia californica plant appeared, opening its strange maw as it appeared onto the field.

Predaplant Darlingtonia Cobra - Dark/Plant/level 3/Effect: 1000/1500

“Now Darlingtonia Cobra’s effect activates!” The boy declared so. “If this card is special summoned by the effect of a ’Predaplant’ monster, I can add one ‘Polymerization’ spell card or ‘Fusion’ spell card from my deck to my hand!”

The boy then added another card to his hand. “The card that I’ll be adding to my hand is…” Drawing it out, the boy slowly flipped the card to show it to their opponents, grinning all the time as he did so. “Super Polymerization!”

She saw the two boy’s eyes widened at the reveal of the supposedly legendary quick-play fusion spell, no doubt both already knowing how strong the card is. “And I’ll activate it!” Yuri said, immediately activating the added quick-play spell.

“I’ll discard Predaplant Byblisp from my hand as cost, to Fusion Summon one Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck using monsters from either field as fusion materials!” He explained with glee. “And neither player can activate cards or effect in response to this card’s activation!”

He then raised his hand high, and declared the materials that he would use for the Fusion Summon. “I’ll be fusing your Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and my Predaplant Darlingtonia Cobra!”

A spark of blinding light flashed through the field, engulfing both monsters that were the declared materials. “O flower that traps insects with alluring aroma! Become one and come out from hell with a new threat!” The boy chanted his usual fusion chant, and clasped both of his hands together. 

“Fusion Summon!” He shouted out with a grin. “Appear! Predaplant Dragostapelia!” The Fusion Monster that appeared was one that was undoubtedly, the best Super Poly target that existed in this current format with Fusions.

The monster let out a cry as it appeared on the field, spreading its wings wide, seemingly emitting a purple fog of poison as it did so. The incredibly long dragonic tail swished as it appeared, floating menacingly over the other monsters that were on the field.

Predaplant Dragostapelia - Dark/Fusion/Plant/level 8/Effect: 2700/1900

“Predaplant Byblisp’s effect!” He declared on, activating the graveyard effect of the monster that he had discarded for the cost of activating Super Polymerization. “If this card is sent to the graveyard, I can add one ‘Predaplant’ monster from my deck to my hand except Byblisp!”

The boy proceeded to add another card to his hand, revealing the card that he’ll add.  “This time, I’ll be adding Predaplant Ophrys Scorpio to my hand.” He said, adding the card and replenishing his hand to three cards.

“I’ll activate the effect of Necro Gardna in the graveyard!” The blue haired duelist declared, activating the graveyard effect of the monster that was used as Fusion Material for Red-Eyes Slash Dragon. “During my opponent’s turn, as a Quick Effect I can banish this card from my graveyard to negate the next attack this turn from a monster you control!”

“Hmm, is that so?” Yuri said, raising an eyebrow at the attack negating effect of Necro Gardna. “Then I’ll attack you directly with Rokket Tracer. And it will be negated.” Yuri gave out the command, and her monster let out a roar as it shot through the field, intending to deal another direct attack, only for it to be negated by a ghoulish silhouette of Necro Gardna stopping the attack dead in its tracks.

“Now I’ll continue to attack!” The boy declared with glee, continuing the Battle Phase in an open board state, with only one unknown set card remaining on the field. “I’ll attack you directly with Predaplant Dragostapleia!” The newly summoned Fusion let out a roar, and proceeded to fly towards their opponent, intending to go and deal a direct attack.

Should they have no form of disruption from this situation, then it’s close to lethal. But knowing her opponents, they’ll surely keep a battle trick or two in hand, just like last game how Fubuki has Swift Scarecrow in his main deck, discounting the Necro Gardna that already negated Tracer’s attack that is.

And just as she thought of it, her opponent responded with a card. “I’ll activate my set card! The trap, Cybernetic Overflow!” Ryo declared, flipping up the card that he had set and revealed exactly what it was, the non-targeting destruction trap card.

“With its effect, I will banish ‘Cyber Dragons’ with different Levels from my hand, face-up field, and or graveyard, then destroy an equal number of cards that you control!” He explained the card’s effect, and took out the cards that he would banish for cost, taking a card from his graveyard and revealing the last card in his hand.

“I will banish Cyber Dragon from my hand, and Cyber Dragon Herz in my graveyard, to destroy two cards!” He said as he banished the two targets as cost, removing them from play. “And I’ll destroy both your Starving Venom Fusion Dragon and Borreload Furious Dragon!”

From the holographic projection of the trap card, the head of the Link Cyber Dragon monster appeared, blasting out a blast of blue energy towards the two declared targets, destroying them without targeting and clearing out both of their monsters that had the highest attack.

Yuri grimaced as he saw his one off, Ace Monster get easily destroyed, it’s graveyard effect not even triggering as their opponent currently controlled no special summoned monster. “But the attack still goes through!” He roared out, and the remaining Fusion Monsters attack hits through.

“Guh!” “Gack!” The two boys both let out their respective grunts as the attack of the Fusion Monster hits them directly, dealing a hefty amount of damage, but still not close enough to reach lethal.

Fubuki Tenjoin & Ryo Marufuji: 5300LP

“Hmm, I didn’t expect that you could even survive the turn. Guess you two really are something aren’t you?” Yuri said condescending, earning him a stink eye from her, to which he waved off. “I’m joking, I’m joking, of course I know that you two are great duelists, that’s why I’m giving it my best to defeat you and all.”

Done with his apparent not trash talk but actual complements for their dueling ability, the purple haired Yu-boy moved on to his second Main Phase. “I’ll set a card, hmm, no wait, I’ll set two cards face-down, and I’ll be ending my turn.”

With that said and done, Yuri ended his turn after wiping their opponents board clean, moving on to Fubuki’s turn with a board of Rokket Tracer and Predaplant Dragostapelia, a monster negate on legs that legs whose effects activates with Predator Counters, two set cards in his backrow, and a card in hand being the added Ophrys Scorpio.

With that the turn player  changed back to Fubuki, the match having gone four five turns and returning the control to the Red-Eyes duelist who has two cards in his hand, one being the Insight that he had added with the floating effect of Black Metal Dragon, and the other an unknown.

“My turn!” He roared out, placing his hand over his duel disk. “I’ll draw!” And drew his card for the turn, drawing it in an arc dramatically as he does so. The boy glanced briefly at the card that he added to his hand, before moving on from the Standby Phase towards the Main Phase where he truly begins his turn.

“I’ll activate the spell card, Red-Eyes Insight!” He said activating the searcher that he had added during her turn. “I’ll send another Red-Eyes Wyvern from my deck to the graveyard, to add another Red-Eyes Fusion to my hand!” The boy said, as he took out a card from his deck, and revealed it to be the fusion spell.

Right the card was at three and is incredibly searchable, she wouldn’t doubt that if Red-Eyes Slash Dragon was printed commonly, which thank God it wasn’t, she checked with Mei and she had only sold a copy to Fubuki, then she doesn’t doubt that a ton of people are going to be jamming the fusion spell as a second Foolish Burial for Warrior strategies.

Then again, Machines are more popular in this dimension compared to Warriors, even though the latter receives a whole lot more support than the former. Must be because of how Academia keeps giving out Ancient Gear decks to aspiring duelists and honour students.

“And I’ll be activating it!” He said activating the spell immediately. “And with its effect, I’ll be fusing my second copy of Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact from my deck!”

A he declared as the two Dark Dragons appeared on his field, roaring as they do so, and the boy raised both of his hands. “O black dragon with eyes of red! Together with the dragon of the comet, combine your powers and be reborn anew!” He completed the chant as he swung his arms down. Fusion Summon! Descend! Meteor Black Comet Dragon!” The Fusion Dragon let out a howling roar that shook the colosseum, as it appeared on the field.

Meteor Black Comet Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 3500/2000

“Now Meteor Black Comet Dragon’s effect!” The boy shouted, waving his arm outwards. “If this card is Fusion Summoned, I can send one ‘Red-Eyes’ monster from my hand or deck to the graveyard, and if I do, inflict damage to both of you equal to half of the original attack of that monster!”

“Then I’ll activate the effect of Predaplant Dragostapelia!” Yuri said in response. “Once per turn, as a Quick Effect, I can target one face-up monster my opponent controls and place 1 Predator Counter on it!”

The chain of effects proceeded to resolve, and vines started to sprout out of the newly summoned burning dragon, eliciting a loud roar from the black meteor based red-eyed dragon.

Meteor Black Comet Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 1/Effect: 3500/2000

The predator vines that constricted around the large burning dragon tightened, making the Fusion Monster cry out another roar, and Fubuki snapped his head towards his monster in shock and confusion.

“What-!? The effect was-”

“Predaplant Dragostapelia’s effect.” Yuri started, smiling smugly as he began his explanation. “It negates the activated effects of my opponents’ monsters that have Predator Counters on them!” As he declared so, the Fusion Monster that stood in front of him roared in a demeaning manner, as if it was laughing.

Such was the effect of the Fusion Monster that Yuri had summoned, the pay off for the Predator Counter gimmick that the Predaplants has as an archetype. Should the monster be summoned in a board where the opponent’s side of the field is filled with monsters with Predator Counters, then it essentially negates all their effects.

Though it technically does only negate activated effects, continuous effects are of course something that would still be activated since Dragostapelia only negates the activated effects, and of course it only negate on field effects.

But for the current board state, it was an incredibly strong card. Monster negate is always monster negates after all.

Seeing that his burn effect, and also the free Foolish Burial that comes with it, was negated, he continued on while scowling. “Battle!” He immediately went to the Battle Phase, forgoing performing any other plays on his Main Phase one. “I’ll attack Predaplant Dragostapelia with Meteor Comet Dragon! Dark Meteor Shot!”

The red eyed burning dragon roared as flames erupted from its mouth, its head arching backwards. The dragon’s head then snapped forwards, shooting a ball of flame as fast as a falling meteor, the dark fireball coming towards the dragonic Plant Fusion Monster.

“I’ll activate the effect of Predaplast in my graveyard!” Yuri declared on the Battle Step, taking the card out from his graveyard to reveal it. “If my ‘Predaplant’ monster would be destroyed by battle, I can banish this card from my graveyard instead!”

“But you still take the damage!” Fubuki shouted out, and the dark fireball hits the dragonic Plant Fusion Monster, creating a large gust of smoke and dust, and though Yuri’s Fusion Monster survived the onslaught, the damage was still dealt.

“Guh!” “Gah!” The two of them let out their respective grunts as the attack of the Fusion Monster hits them, dealing a meagre amount of damage that is still nowhere close enough to getting them in lethal range, though knowing Cyber Dragons and the build that ryo’s playing, they’re certainly close.

Yuuna & Yuri: 6600LP

“I’ll then set a card!” He then proceeded to set a card on his spell and trap zone, placing it next to the continuous trap that he still has on board. “And I’ll also set a monster!” He said, placing a card on his duel disk, and a face-down defence position monster was summoned onto the field.

“And now I’ll end my turn.” And with that, Fubuki ended his turn, ending with a board of a newly summoned Fusion Monster with 3500 attack points, another monster that was set face-down, and a set card.

“Then it’s my turn.” She said so, placing her hand over her duel disk, or more specifically her deck. “I’ll draw.” She drew her card for the turn, replenishing her hand to a whopping one card.

“On your Standby Phase I’ll activate the effect of Return of the Red-Eyes!” Fubuki declared, since the turn controller has changed, he was no longer under the lock of Red-Eyes Fusion. “I’ll special summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon in defence position!”

The effect of the continuous trap card was triggered once more, and the now familiar form of the red-eyed black dragon descended onto the field, being summoned in defence position to stand as a wall to protect their Life Points.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Normal: 2400/2000

She couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at the recurring monster, realising that Fubuki was performing a stall strategy to get to Ryo’s turn. If possible she wants to try and attempt lethal here, though that seems quite impossible with the monsters that her opponents has on field.

She checked the set card that Yuri had set on his second Main Phase, seeing that it was Predaplanning, a card that would mill a Predaplant monster and place a Predator Counter on each face-up monster on the field.

It was both a set up card where he could set the graveyard, be it by milling Cordyceps to get double recursion from the grave or to send Lilyzard to get an added draw. Or perhaps both, she doesn’t know what the other two cards that he has on hand are after all.

“I’ll normal summon Nurse Dragonmaid.” She said, placing the card onto her duel disk, and the white and pink dressed Dragonoid nurse appeared on her field, bowing slightly while holding a clipboard in one hand.

Nurse Dragonmaid - Dark/Dragon/Level 2/Effect: 500/1600

It was an incredibly great top deck for her, especially since she only runs two copies of the monster. But compared to the other top decks that she had seen in the previous matches, it wasn’t really much. “I’ll activate Nurse’s effect! I’ll be special summoning Chamber from my graveyard!”

Her opponents did not activate his newly set face-down card in response, and so the black dress wearing Dragonmaid reappeared onto her field in defence position, filling the empty spot that was next to the nurse outfit wearing humanoid dragon.

Chamber Dragonmaid - Dark/Dragon/Level 4/Effect: 500/1800

“Now Chamber’s effect! I’ll be adding Dragonmaid Tidying to my hand.” She activated the newly summoned Dragonmaid’s effect in a new chain, and without a response, she took her archetype’s notable trap card into her hand.

It was quite annoying that she couldn’t exactly make Sheou in her first Main Phase, but she could possibly summon her walking omni negate on her second Main Phase, that is by getting the high Level dragon needed for the fusion material with Chamber’s tag out effect.

The only problem that she has to face was none other than the fact that Meteor Black Comet Dragon has 3500 attack, the same amount of attack as Sheou, meaning that she couldn’t out it by battle, but she already has the out with the added Tidying.

“I’ll move to the Battle Phase.” She declared out, attempting to play out the line of play that she had thought of. “And at the start of the Battle Phase, I will tag out Chamber Dragonmaid for Dragonmaid Tinkhec!”

The black and white dress wearing Dragonmaid then swiped her duster and performed a curtsy, before starting to shine and shift, becoming larger and turning more draconic, turning into the Level 8 Fire Dragonmaid.

Dragonmaid Tinkhec - Fire/Dragon/Level 8/Effect: 2700/1700

Fubuki still doesn’t activate his set card, and at this point she was quite worried at what it was. If it was a Reborn kind of trap like Red-Eyes Spirit, then it was understandable why he was holding it, but shouldn’t he know that Tidying would remove Black Comet without destroying it?

“I will attack your Red-Eyes Black Dragon with Tinkhec.” She declared so, and the Fire Dragonmaid’s true dragon form shot out, letting out a large breath of fire that incinerated the black dragon, dealing no damage since it was summoned in defence position.

“I’ll activate my trap card!” Fubuki declared so, flipping up the face-down set card that was in his spell and trap zone. “Red-Eyes Burn!” He said, as the trap card depicting an exploding Red-Eyes was revealed.

She was quite shocked at the brown haired boy was running a burn card that was… arguably quite bad. Especially when there’s a better card that does something similar in Inferno Fire Blast. “If a face-up ‘Red-Eyes’ monster that I control is destroyed by battle or card effects, I can target one of those monsters and both players take damage equal to its original attack!”

He took out the monster that had just been destroyed, the vanilla Red-Eyes that was summoned back onto the field with the effect of Return of the Red-Eyes. “The monster that I target is the destroyed Red-Eyes Black Dragon! Which means that all of us take 2400 damage!”

The dust settled in from the flames that hit the red-eyed dragon, revealing shining cracks in its scales, the monster then roared loudly, the cracks growing, becoming numerous across the monster’s body, and soon exploded.

““““GAH!”””” They all collectively shouted out, bringing their arms up as the large explosion damaged them all, putting Ryo and Fubuki even closer to lethal range, while putting them close to half of their Life Points.

Fubuki Tenjoin & Ryo Marufuji: 2900LP

Yuuna & Yuri: 4200L

“I’ll attack your face-down with Predaplant Dragostapelia!” She continued the Battle Phase, continuing to attack with the Plant Fusion Monster, and as the dragon-like Plant Monster shot forth the face-down monster was flipped face-up, revealing that it was a small baby chick dragon.

Red-Eyes Baby Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 3/Effect: 1200/700

The monster was of course destroyed by battle, and in doing so the monster’s effect was activated. “I’ll activate Red-Eyes Baby Dragon’s effect! When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one Level 7 or lower ‘Red-Eyes’ monster from my deck!”

He revealed a monster, it wasn’t the last copy of his Red-Eyes Black Dragon, but instead a Gemini Monster. “I’ll special summon Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon! And with Red-Eyes Baby Dragon’s effect, I’ll equip it to my dragon to boost it’s attack by 300!”

A monster then appeared in a burst of fire, an alternate Red-Eyes appeared, its wings blood red instead of the original black, with flames pouring out from them. The dragon let out a roar as it appeared onto the field.

Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Gemini/Normal: 2400/2000

The silhouette of the small baby dragon then appeared, seemingly being absorbed into the burning Gemini Monster, giving it a boost in attack, giving it an attack stat that contested Dragostapelia.

Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Gemini/Normal: 2700/2000

Black Flare, if she wasn’t mistaken it was another Red-Eyes monster that was burn centric, not as good as Flare Metal, the XYZ Monster that certainly wasn't going to be used anytime soon, but was still one that can burn for a lot if it was normal summoned to gain its Gemini Effect.

She at least can prevent that. “I’ll activate the effect of Dragostapelia. I’ll place a Predator Counter on your Black Flare Dragon.” Saying so, the dragon-like Plant monster let out another screech, the poisonous mist that it emitted focused on the newly summoned burning dragon, and vines started to grow around its body, a visual sign that the counter had been placed on it.

Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 1/Gemini/Normal: 2700/2000

It was quite annoying from this position, but she could at the very least summon Sheou. Thinking so, she moved on towards her second Main Phase. “I’ll activate the effect of Dragonmaid Changeover in my graveyard, I will return Nurse Dragonmaid to my hand, in order to add it to my hand.”

The nurse-like Dragonmaid disappeared from her field, being returned to her hand thanks to the effect of the fusion spell, letting her add both of them back. “And now I’ll activate it.” She immediately activated the added fusion spell.

“I will be fusing Dragonmaid Tinkhec on my field, and Nurse Dragonmaid in my hand!” The black and red Fire Dragon spun appeared onto the field, spinning around the nurse outfit wearing Dragonmaid, their forms soon turned transparent and ethereal, before fusing into one singular large monster.

She swung her hand down and snapped her fingers, completing the fusion chant. “Fusion Summon! Appear! Dragonmaid Sheou!” The black and white dragon let out a sharp cry, once more unfurling its large wings as she floated to her side. 

Dragonmaid Sheou - Light/Dragon/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 3500/2000

“I’ll set one card, and I’ll end my turn.” Saying so, she ended her turn. Quite productively, she managed to put a few form of interaction in the form of both Sheou, her omni negate of choice on legs, and Tidying, with one card left in her hand being the Chamber that she had returned to the hand.

The turn passed once more, and it was again Ryo’s turn. Starting without a card in his hand, the boy began his turn by drawing a card. “My turn! I’ll draw!” The follower of the Cyber Style drew his card for turn, and as they moved to the Standby Phase, effects were activated.

“I’ll activate the effect of Sheou! During each Standby Phase, I can special summon one Level 9 or lower ‘Dragonmaid’ from my hand or graveyard! Maid Call!” She snapped her fingers, activating the recourse recurring effect of her Fusion Monster during her opponent’s turn.

“Then I’ll also activate Return of the Red-Eyes! And I’ll special summon Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact in defence position!” Her blue haired opponent chained the effect of his continuous trap, recurring back a variation of the dragon of infinite potential that was used for fusion material.

This time, the monster that was summoned wasn’t the vanilla Red-Eyes Black Dragon, but instead was a Gemini variant of the dragon with a lower Level, one that would give a continuous protection to all other Red-Eyes on the field.

Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact - Dark/Dragon/Level 6/Gemini/Normal: 1800/2000

“I’ll special summon Nurse Dragonmaid.” She said, taking the card back from her graveyard and placing the card onto her duel disk, and the white and pink dressed Dragonoid nurse appeared on her field once more.

Nurse Dragonmaid - Dark/Dragon/Level 2/Effect: 500/1600

And with this she basically started to swarm the board, activating a new chain as she used Nurse’s effect to fill their entire board with monsters. “I’ll activate Nurse’s effect! I’ll be special summoning Kitchen Dragonmaid from my graveyard!”

The nurse outfit wearing Dragonmaid tapped her clipboard, and not a moment later the whisk bearing Fire Dragon appeared, swishing her tail as she bowed towards her opponents being resummoned from the graveyard. 

Kitchen Dragonmaid - Fire/Dragon/Level 3/Effect: 500/1700

“And now with Kitchen Dragonmaid’s effect, I’ll add and discard Dragonmaid Ernus.” Using the adding and discarding effect of her recently summoned Dragonmaid, she essentially Foolished Ernus, giving her a tag out target for Nurse should they enter the Battle Phase.

After all, if there was a target that she would use for the effect of Tidying, it would most probably be Kitchen. Since she had already recurred most of her resources with Nurse, and without a low Level Dragonmaid to revive, the card was basically dead after all.

Ryo then moved towards his first Main Phase, she truly does wonder what the boy could possibly do with only a single card in his hand. What was the best card that he could possibly draw in his situation? Perhaps a Cyber Dragon Core to get another copy of Cyberload Fusion that she could use during the Battle Phase? 

But even then she doubts that that would do much. In the best scenario where he draws anything that could be a high impact card, then she’ll simply use Sheou to negate it, this was after all, an incredibly simplified gamestate.

“I will activate the spell, Pot of Avarice!” The boy revealed the card that he had drawn for the turn, and that being the draw spell that he most definitely could use in this situation with the loaded graveyard that he has.

“This card allows me to target 5 monsters in my graveyard, and shuffle all 5 into the deck, then I draw two cards!” He explained the pot’s effect, and the disembodied head with gems for teeth appeared on the field.

“I will target two Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Black Metal Dragon, Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and Cyber Twin Dragon!” He decided all five targets that he would shuffle into his deck, most of them being the monsters that Fubuki had dumped into the grave for Fusion Summons.

This, was certainly a high impact card that she could not let resolve. A draw two are always something that needs to be responded, in a simplified gamestate like this one, drawing two could change the whole game state after all. “In response I’ll activate the effect of Sheou! I’ll return her to the Extra Deck to negate the effect! And in doing so, special summoning House Dragonmaid from my Extra Deck!”  

The black and white Fusion Dragon let out a cry, flapping her two large wings to negate the activation and destroy the card, transmorphing into her humanoid form, the second copy of House Dragonmaid descended onto the field.

House Dragonmaid - Light/Dragon/Fusion/Level 9/Effect: 3000/2000

With the card that he had drawn for the turn negated, and no other cards to activate for the turn, Ryo continued and moved on to perform his next play for the turn. “I will normal summon Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact for it to gain its Gemini effect!” Saying so, the Cyber Style duelist used his normal summon for the turn on the Gemini Monster, giving it its protection effect.

Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact - Dark/Dragon/Level 6/Gemini/Effect: 1800/2000

“While Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact is an effect monster, other ‘Red-Eyes’ monster that i control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects!” He said, explaining the monster’s continuous protection, an effect that she couldn’t negate with Predaplant Dragostapelia.

It was a niche protection effect, which sadly does not protect itself from the same types of destruction, but it also does not protect any of his monster’s from targeting effects like the trap card that she had set.

And surely the boy knew that too. “I’ll switch Red-Eyes Black Flare Dragon to defence position.” He said changing the monster to defence position, and he chose to end his turn instead of performing any other play. “I’ll end my turn.” He said begrudgingly, moving on towards the End Phase to pass his turn.

It was really the best play that he could have done to preserve his Life Points and stall the game. Had he moved on towards the Battle Phase, she would have tagged out Nurse for Ernus, allowing House to pop Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact, and Tidying always had its effect online.

“On declaration of moving to the End Phase.” She declared first, activating a card effect before her opponent moved off from the End Phase. “I’ll activate the trap card, Dragonmaid Tidying! I will target your Meteor Black Comet Dragon and my Kitchen Dragonmaid to return them both to the hand!”

Without a card to activate in response, the trap card resolved, and the low Leveled Fire Dragonmaid was returned to her hand, while in the case of the Dark Fusion red-eyed Dragon, it was returned back to the Extra Deck.

“In the End Phase I’ll activate the effect of Red-Eyes Wyvern in the graveyard!” The blue haired boy declared out, activating the recursion that his partner had sent with the effect of Red-Eyes Insight. 

“I’ll banish this card from my graveyard, and summon Red-Eyes Slash Dragon in defence position!” He took the monster card from the graveyard, and placed it onto his duel disk, and summoned back the armoured Fusion Monster.

Red-Eyes Slash Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 7/Effect: 2800/2400

The turn passes, and Yuri started his second turn of the game, starting from his Draw Step to draw a card. “Alright then, I’ll draw!” The purple haired boy drew his card for the turn, and with four cards in his hand, he started his turn. 

“I’ll activate the effect of Return of the Red-Eyes! I’ll special summon the second copy of Red-Eyes Black Dragon in defence position!” He summoned the red-eyed dragon onto the field with the continuous trap’s effect, filling his field with a wall of monsters.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 7/Normal: 2400/2000

She wasn’t quite sure if Yuri could attempt for lethal with the four monsters that Ryo and Fubuki had on board, but she could see him doing so with the monsters that they already have on the field, and the cards that he has on hand.

“For starters I’ll activate the trap, Predaplanning!” Yuri flipped up the face-down set card that he had set during his last turn. “This card lets me send one ‘Predaplant’ monster from my deck to the graveyard to place one Predator Counter on each face-up monster on the field!”

The Fusion Dimension’s own Yu-boy then took out a card from his deck, revealing what Predaplant monster he would mill to the graveyard with its effect. “I’ll send Predaplant byblisp from my deck to the grave, to place a Predator Counter on every face-up monster on the field!”

The monster was then sent to the graveyard, essentially getting the boy a monster search with its effect, and placing a Predator Counter on every monster on the field, even their own, turning their Level to one.

Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact - Dark/Dragon/Level 1/Gemini/Effect: 1800/2000

Red-Eyes Slash Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Fusion/Level 1/Effect: 2800/2400

Red-Eyes Black Dragon - Dark/Dragon/Level 1/Normal: 2400/2000

Nurse Dragonmaid - Dark/Dragon/Level 1/Effect: 500/1600

House Dragonmaid - Light/Dragon/Fusion/Level 1/Effect: 3000/2000

Predaplant Dragostapelia - Dark/Fusion/Plant/level 1/Effect: 2700/1900

Rokket Tracer- Dark/Dragon/Level 1/Tuner/Effect: 1600/1000

“Now with the effect of Byblisp that’s sent to the graveyard, I’ll add a second copy of Predaplant Chlamydosundew!” He then added the monster to his hand. Essentially adding a fusion spell to his hand.

“And now I’ll summon it!” The boy immediately placed the monster card onto his duel disk, making the second copy of the lizard-like Plant Monster appear onto the field, letting out a screech as it placed itself as the fifth monster on their side of the field.

Predaplant Chlamydosundew - Dark/Plant/level 2/Effect: 600/200

 

“And now I’ll activate the effect of Chlamydosundew!” He declared so with a smile, activating the monster’s effect to Fusion Summon for the second time of the match. “This time, I’ll Fusion Summon using Chlamydosundew on my field, your Red-Eyes Black Dragon and your Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact!”

The boy declared out three monsters, or more specifically three Dark Monsters that were on the field, and the three monsters were all consumed into a single vortex of purple and blue. “O flower that traps insects with alluring aroma! Become one and come out from hell with a new threat!” 

He then clasped his hands together, completing the fusion chant to summon a new Fusion Monster with a deranged smile on his face. “Fusion Summon! Appear! Predaplant Triphyoverutum!”

The monster that was summoned was an incredibly large Plant Fusion Monster,  one whose name was a portmanteau of Vertumnus, god of seasons, change and plant growth in Roman mythology, and Triphyophyllum, a carnivorous plant, resulting in a three headed monstrosity with leaf-like wings.

It was a Fusion Monster that she knew of. An incredible target for a Super Poly against a Dark Attribute deck as it requires three Dark Monsters that were on the field, and with a Judgement-like effect to negate a special summon from the Extra Deck.

It was certainly one that was released after the Arc-V era, it was released at a side set wasn’t it? 

And she knew first and foremost, that she had not given her partner that card unlike the Super Poly that she was loaning him.

Predaplant Triphyoverutum - Dark/Fusion/Plant/level 9/Effect: 3000/3000

“Now Triphyoverutum’s effect!” Yuri declared. “This card gains attack equal to the total original attack of all other monsters on the field with a Predator Counter! Predator Trip!” The purple haired boy waved his arm, and the mouths of the Fusion Monster opened, absorbing the purple pollen-like energy that the vines constricting every monster on the field emitted, giving the monster an incredible boost in attack points, even bigger than the Chimeratech Overdragon that Ryo had summoned last match.

Predaplant Triphyoverutum - Dark/Fusion/Plant/level 9/Effect: 19000/3000

“Now I’ll go to the Battle Phase!” Yuri declared with a simple wave of his hand. “And on the start of the Battle Phase, I’ll activate the effect of Nurse Dragonmaid to return her to the hand to special summon Dragonmaid Ernus from the grave!” 

Yuri then tagged out her monster and added it to his hand, summoning the Earth high Leveled Dragonmaid Monster in her place.

Dragonmaid Ernus - Earth/Dragon/Level 7/Effect: 2600/1600

But since Nurse, who had a Predator Counter while she was on the field was returned back to the hand, Triphyoverutum’s attack was reduced ever so slightly. 

Predaplant Triphyoverutum - Dark/Fusion/Plant/level 9/Effect: 18500/3000

“And since a Dragonmaid Monster was returned to the hand, the effect of House Dragonmaid activates! I’ll be destroying your Slash Dragon!” With Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact no longer on the field, and Slash Dragon not having its targeting protection online as they possessed no equip spells, the monster was then destroyed, lowering the attack of Tripoverutum even more as it was no longer on the field.

Predaplant Triphyoverutum - Dark/Fusion/Plant/level 9/Effect: 15700/3000

“And now, I’ll be attacking your last remaining monster with House Dragonmaid~!” With a sing-song voice, the boy ordered her Fusion Monster to attack the one remaining monster on the field, that being the Flare Black Dragon that was switched to defence position, destroying it in battle, and lowering the attack of Triphyoverutum even further, though with an open field like this, no matter what attack it had, it will still deal lethal.

Predaplant Triphyoverutum - Dark/Fusion/Plant/level 9/Effect: 13300/3000

“And now the finale!” He declared loudly with a threathical flare, letting both of his arms go wide, and met their two opponents who were both smiling shakily and frowning hard with manic glee. 

“I’ll attack you both directly with Triphyoverutum! Predator’s End!” With that declaration of attack, the three headed  PlantFusion Monster let out a monstrous roar, poison spewing out from its mouth as it shot out vines towards their two opponents, dealing far, far more than lethal with a single attack.

““GUAAAH!”” Both the Red-Eyes duelist and the follower of the Cyber Style both screamed as the attack hits them directly, the shockwave from the hit of the solid hologram strong enough to send them both off of their feet and tumbling towards their back, landing roughly on the cold hard raised platform that they dueled on, undoubtedly injuring the both of them.

Fubuki Tenjoin & Ryo Marufuji: 0LP

“Ryo! Fubuki!” She cried out the two’s names, her eyes wide at them with worry. She sent a glare towards her purple haired boy that was her partner, who gave her a shameful look as he looked away.

She muted out the incredibly loud cheer and shouts that the audience let out, ignoring how their cheer got louder as they saw the two boys get thrown and injured from the last attack, along with the loud commentator of the match to instead rush towards the two downed duelists. “You two alright?” She asked, reaching out a hand towards Ryo, seeing as Fubuki had already picked himself up.

The blue haired boy was unresponsive for a few seconds, seemingly hypnotised by the loud cheers that the audience gave out at seeing the beatdown, at seeing the two losers get hurt from that last attack, that they had just given them. He shook his head, took her hand and stood up.

The two congratulated her and Yuri, both quite frustrated that they had lost of course, having put up a great fight against them they accepted their defeat. But to her, their praises were drowned by the cheers of the crowd, and the bitter taste in her mouth.