Phil: 4000 Sartorius: 4000
“I’ll take the first turn!”
A pause filled the air after both Sartorius and Phil declared those exact same words at the exact same time. It was one of the first duels Phil had been in since coming to this world where both duelists claimed the right to the first turn. An oddity, for sure.
Sartorius was the first to break the silence.
“A coin, perhaps?”
Phil shrugged. Coin flips, or more commonly, dice rolls, were how the turn order was most commonly decided back on Earth. Whoever would call the flip right, or roll a higher number on the die/dice would get to choose the turn order. However, just to make sure…
“Fine by me. Only, I want to take a look at the coin first.”
Sartorius smiled amicably and pulled a shining gold five-yen coin out of his pocket. He tossed it to Phil, who deftly caught it in one hand and flipped it over to view both sides. The coin was undoubtedly fancy, but the key part was that it looked like an ordinary five-yen coin. A hole through the middle, a slight goldish color, and most importantly, there were no screaming faces trapped in the metal. No indications at all that the object was a soul coin or something similar.
Phil turned it over again and then held the coin up into the air. Moments later a heavy presence filled the air as D.3.S. Frog correctly guessed his intentions. A single soggy breath was drawn in as the duel spirit took a deep whiff of the coin, before letting out a low croak of approval and disappearing once more.
Well, that was that. Assuming he understood his buddy correctly, the coin was probably fine. Phil gestured with it toward Sartorius, who once more smiled amicably and said one word in response.
“Heads.”
Phil nodded and tucked his hand of five cards into his graveyard for safekeeping. He’d need both of his hands free for this. “That means tails for me.”
The coin flashed under the bright moonlight, the illumination given from the heavenly body being enough to make the cliffside appear to be as bright as day, though perhaps a particularly dim day. The coin flashed, spun in the air, and landed in Phil’s outstretched palm. Without even glancing at the initial result, he slapped his palm onto the back of his other hand and revealed the outcome.
“Heads. Lucky bastard.” Phil clicked his tongue in annoyance, sending a glare to the coin that was resting on the back of his hand. He tossed the coin back to Sartorius and then pulled his five-card hand back out of the graveyard.
Meanwhile, Sartorius stowed the coin away in his pocket and drew a card to start his turn with a mysterious smile.
“Oh, I am indeed a ‘lucky bastard’, as you call me. Fate itself is on my side. Allow me to show you why! I activate Pot of Greed to draw two cards! Then, I activate the spell card Cup of Ace! I’ll toss a coin to apply its effect. If I get heads, I draw two cards. If it’s tails, you will draw two cards.”
Sartorius pulled the same five-yen coin out of his pocket and casually flicked it into the air. The metal flashed once, then twice under the moonlight before it landed in Sartorius's palm and was moved to rest on the back of his other hand. Then he revealed the result to Phil.
"Heads." Sartorius announced. "I draw two cards. For my next move, I shall activate my spell card, Terraforming! It will allow me to add the field spell Light Barrier to my hand, which I will then activate."
All of a sudden, the gentle glow of moonlight brightened tenfold as a glowing yellow barrier of shimmering energy burst into life to encircle the two duelists, cutting off the duel field from the rest of the surrounding cliffside and jungle. A few of the trees unlucky enough to be close by were abruptly split in the middle as part of the energy circle cut through their centers, causing the tree halves to come crashing to the ground with an enormous sound of splintering wood.
Phil’s lips curled. He knew exactly what that field spell could do, having played it himself in the past. In a nutshell, Light Barrier would allow Sartorius to choose the effects of his Arcana Force monsters, instead of leaving the results up to the whims of a coin flip. A potentially dangerous card, but unless that man was playing the FTK variant of the deck… well, he wasn’t too scared of it.
“Now, I do admit that I recently performed a reading of the cards before we started this duel, but allow me to peer once more into the tumultuous currents of fate! I activate the spell card Arcana Reading! Because Light Barrier is on the field, I can choose the outcome of this card’s effect, instead of leaving it up to a coin toss. I shall choose the 'heads' effect, of course. It allows me to take one card that has a coin-tossing effect listed in the text from my deck to add to my hand. That will be the continuous trap card, Tour of Doom!”
As a holographic deck of tarot cards appeared on the field and scattered themselves face-up across the ground, Phil looked at his opponent with a considering gaze. Those were two cards he hadn’t ever heard of before. Phil shifted in place and glanced at his hand. There was nothing he could do to stop Sartorius from building up his defenses for now.
Sartorius shuffled his hand around and revealed another card, clearly content in continuing his turn far past the point that any other deck in this era could normally reach.
“My apologies, Magician, but the currents of fate wish for my advantages to multiply once more. I activate the effect of a monster card in my hand, Couple of Aces (100/100)! I will toss a coin and call the result. If I call it right, I can special summon this monster to my field and draw two cards. If I call it wrong, it goes to your field, and you will draw two cards. I call tails!”
The five-yen coin shimmered in the light and was sent to rest on the back of Satorius’s hand to reveal… tails.
“Draw two!” Sartorius laughed. “Then I shall activate a second copy of Cup of Ace! Coin, reveal to me the whims of fate!”
Heads.
Sartorius drew another two cards and immediately revealed another spell card.
“One for One, activate! I discard Arcana Force VI – The Lovers in return for special summoning the level one monster Arcana Force 0 – The Fool (0/0) from my deck to my field in defense position! The Fool’s effect shall now activate, influenced by my field spell to automatically choose the tails effect. While my monster remains on the field, any of your card effects that target The Fool shall be negated and destroyed! Then…”
Sartorius grimly laughed and spread his arms out wide. “Then, I sacrifice Couple of Aces to tribute summon the level six monster, Vanity’s Fiend (2400/1200)!”
A cloaked man with flowing dark crimson hair elegantly stepped onto the field, one reddish-haired hand sprouting from under his cloak to grasp at a disintegrating white lily. Right next to the man floated a strange alien-like creature with long hair that looked more like tentacles sprouting from its head than actual hair. The creature looked rather comical as it pranced around in its poofy purple and black pants, lending much legitimacy to its name of ‘The Fool’.
Phil’s lips curled with intense irritation. The second monster was another familiar card, but this one was a bit more of a problem than the other ones Phil recognized. While Vanity’s Fiend was on the field, both players were prohibited from special summoning monsters. Still, there was once again nothing he could do about it at this point in time, so Phil simply watched in silence as Sartorius placed three cards face down and ended his turn.
“I draw. Standby phase.”
“In your standby phase!” Sartorius’s voice boomed out, “I activate my continuous trap card, Tour of Doom!”
Without another word, Sartorius threw his five-yen coin high into the air and caught it to reveal the 'heads' result.
“The answer of the cosmos is heads, so until the end phase of this turn, you are prohibited from normal and flip summoning monsters!”
“Sure. Whatever. Entering the first main phase, is that allowed now?" Phil rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Sartorius silently nodded and Phil leapt into action with a now-maniacal grin.
“How many cards do you have in your deck? Probably started with 40, right? I bet you have quite a bit less now.”
Without even waiting for Sartorius to reply, Phil revealed a spell card in his hand.
"Here, there is no ban list that matters that can restrain my power! I activate the spell card That Grass Looks Greener! I have more cards in my deck, so I get to send cards off the top of my deck until I have the same number of cards you do."
"I started with more than than that. 50 cards, actually. Right now there are 32 cards remaining in my deck." Sartorius gently announced.
Phil's grin widened. "And I'm at a full 54 now that my starting hand and my draw for the turn are both out of the way. That means I get to mill 22 fucking cards. Let's fucking go."
Phil’s duel disk began to whirr to life in preparation for sending the cards, but before that action could be done, Sartorius moved his hand to flip over one of his face down cards.
“My apologies, Magician. I activate the continuous trap card, Macro Cosmos. While this card remains face up, any card sent to the graveyard is banished instead.”
Phil clicked his tongue. That… was bad. The situation wasn’t inescapable, but losing the insane card advantage he would have gained via successfully resolving Grass was seriously bad. Still, he’d been there and done that back on Earth. This wasn’t the first time, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. All the other times it had been stopped, Phil had found a workaround. This time would be no different. At least the presence of that card confirmed things.
“You sneaky rat fuckwad. A counter-Phil deck, huh? You did your homework for sure.” Phil sneered as his duel disk sent 22 cards spiraling into the banish zone. Yes. At this point, Phil was almost certain that Sartorius's deck had been built specifically with techs intended to counter his strategy. Macro Cosmos had zero synergy with Arcana Force, and it was the same with Vanity’s Fiend. Few duelists would bother packing those cards in the main deck unless they were running one of the few strategies that liked those cards, such as Gren Maju OTK.
“Hell, whatever. You know what shit like that is for me? Another fucking day at my locals. And just like all the other times this happens, all you’re doing is throwing up some speed bumps for my road-rage-fueled car to blow past. I set five cards and pass my turn!”
“Speed bumps you say.” Sartorius chuckled and drew a card. “Fate is on my side. My cards should prove to be far more than simple ‘bumps’. Yet, you may have a point.” He gestured toward the Wheel of Fortune tarot card, which was still floating silently in the air between the two duelists, being neither right side up nor upside down. In other words, the card was still undecided. The five-yen coin was thrown into the air once more as required for Light Barrier’s maintenance effect, revealing the ‘heads’ result. As such, the field spell’s effect continued to be applied as normal.
“The tarot does not yet foresee the winner. However, I wonder what you shall do to stop the unending tides of fate? I activate my third Cup of Ace!”
The five-yen coin flashed in the air. Heads.
“I draw two! Now it is the perfect time to reveal my other spell card, Harpie’s Feather Duster!”
Phil’s pupils constricted and his hand hastily flicked over two of his face down cards.
“Not so fast! First off, I activate the trap card Dark Sacrifice in direct response to your spell. Then, allow me to draw your attention to the columns on the field. I activate my second trap card, Infinite Impermanence! I target Vanity’s Fiend to negate its effects, and since I made sure to specifically set Impermanence in the same column as your Macro Cosmos, the effect of your continuous trap card is negated for the rest of this turn!”
A green feather duster popped into the air above the two duelists, but before it could dust off the field and destroy Phil’s trap cards, a threatening shadowy presence settled like a thick veil to separate the duster and the traps.
“Dark Sacrifice will negate the effect of your card that would destroy a card on the field, preventing your Feather Duster from blowing up my backrow. Then on its resolution, I can send one level three or lower dark monster from my deck to my graveyard. Give me some good advantage, Absolute King Back Jack!”
The duel field flashed as a golden-haired robot activated its jetpack to dive from Phil’s deck straight to his graveyard. As soon as the robot finished its spiraling arc into the next life, its golden hair flashed with a brilliant light.
“Back Jack’s effect activates! When it’s sent to the graveyard, I can look at the top three cards of my deck and reorder them as I please.”
Phil quickly scooped up the top three cards, glanced over them, and then placed them back on top of the deck in the original order they were in. Then, he gestured to Back Jack once more.
“Back Jack’s second effect will now activate. I banish him and excavate the top card of my deck. If it’s a normal trap card, I can set it to my field. Otherwise, it goes to the graveyard.”
Phil slid off the top card of his deck to reveal the normal trap card Needlebug Nest, which he then placed in the same zone Dark Sacrifice had been in a moment before.
"Furthermore!" Phil instantly moved on to his next play before Sartorius had a chance to speak. "On the resolution of Back Jack's effect, I activate Needlebug Nest!"
“Traps must remain face down for a turn before you are able to activate them.” Sartorius spoke up and pointed toward Phil’s trap with a gentle smile.
“Back Jack’s effect says otherwise.” Phil grinned. “I can activate the card set by its effect during the same turn it was set if I want to. And I do! Needlebug Nest’s gonna mill five cards from the top of my deck!”
Once that action was completed, Phil gestured for Sartorius to continue his turn.
“Well played.” Sartorius acknowledged with a nod. “I have been aware for some time that both you and the Fool are fated to be my most difficult opponents on this island. I admit you are correct. I changed my Arcana Force deck to better counter your own. Allow me to demonstrate. I activate another Harpie’s Feather Duster!”
“Motherfucker.” Phil swore and gestured with a hand for Sartorius to allow him a moment to think. Phil’s fingers tapped away at his thigh as his eyes darted between Sartorius’s spell card and his own remaining three face down cards.
"Gah, I hate to do this… but your card is fine. However, I activate a trap card of my own in response! Sixth Sense, reveal yourself! I declare the number five and the number six! Then you will roll a six-sided die. If you roll one of the numbers I chose, I draw that many cards. Otherwise I will have to send cards from my deck to my graveyard equal to the number rolled.”
Sartorius began to withdraw a single die from his pocket, but Phil held out his hand to stop the man.
“Ah, but before that, do you have any response to my card?”
Sartorius shook his head.
"Perfect." Phil darkly grinned. "In response to the activation of a trap card on the field, I activate the effect of Paleozoic Marrella in my graveyard. This will special summon him as a level two aqua-type, water attribute normal monster with 1200 attack points and zero defense points. Then, chaining to Marrella, I activate Paleozoic Canadia on my field, targeting your Vanity’s Fiend to flip into face down defense position. That trap activation will trigger the effect of another Paleo in my graveyard, that being Paleozoic Olenoides. It will feature the same stat block as Marrella.”
Paleozoic Marrella (1200/0), Paleozoic Olenoides (1200/0).
Two strange aquatic monsters floated onto the field like they were swimming in an invisible pool of water. Paleozoic Marrella, a green creature that almost looked like a strand of seaweed given life, calmly settled next to the dark purple form of Paleozoic Olenoides, carefully maneuvering its whiskers around the sharp fangs littering Olenoides’ body. Both monsters were cautiously floating in place in defense position.
Then, once those two monsters finished gathering onto the field, Sartorius sent the six-sided die spinning into the air. The white cube rose several feet into the space between the two duelists before it came back down to settle on the ground.
“One.” Sartorius apathetically read out the response. Phil clicked his tongue again. The worst result possible. He still got to send the top card of his deck to the graveyard, but it would only be one card. Whatever. Even one more card in his graveyard was another scrap of card advantage at his fingertips.
As soon as the result was revealed, the green dusting tool in the air ruffled its feathers and sent Phil’s remaining trap, a face down Solemn Judgment, spinning into the graveyard. It was a loss that hurt, but at this point in time it wasn't worth losing half his life points to save two cards he was planning to activate this turn anyway. Not in a 4000 life point format, at least. If it was 8000? Well, then he would have considered the possibility of Judgment being worth it.
“Now, though I could flip summon Vanity’s Fiend back to the face up attack position, I will not do that just yet. For you see, I have a spell card that is most beneficial to me to activate! Reasoning!”
“Which you can use now that Fiend is temporarily out of the picture. Fair enough.” Phil grumbled. “I choose level four.”
“Ah. Good. You know what my card does. That saves me the hassle of explaining.” Sartorius knowingly smiled and began to excavate cards off the top of his deck. One card, two cards, a total of seven cards were revealed before he reached a monster that could be normal summoned or set.
“The level seven Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon (2800/2800)! All the other cards I excavated go to the graveyard, and because you chose wrongly, I can special summon the monster I revealed!”
A metallic monster made of pitch-black metal crawled over the side of the cliff with spaghetti-like robotic arms. In its stomach was a glass sphere, one that contained a strange alien that stared at Phil with murderous contempt. Overhead, the moon brightened to the point that it felt like it was in the middle of the day.
Sartorius nodded and waved toward his newly summoned monster. “Normally I would toss a coin when my monster is summoned, but Light Barrier allows me to take luck out of the play. I choose for my monster to receive its ‘tails’ effect!”
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“Which is?” Phil raised an eyebrow as he looked the new monster up and down.
“Once per turn, during my end phase,” Sartorius smugly replied, “I will be forced to give control of one of my monsters to you. In fact, let me show you exactly which monster it’s going to be! I normal summon Arcana Force III – The Empress (1300/1300)! Light Barrier, give my monster its ‘tails’ effect!”
Sartorius then flip summoned his Vanity’s Fiend and moved to the battle phase. While the odd figure of The Fool remained in defense position, the space-themed Moon and The Empress, covered in bright blue armor and a thin cloak, showed a certain lust for blood in their eyes that was only slightly overshadowed by the elegant form of Vanity’s Fiend.
“Empress! Destroy Paleozoic Marrella!”
Phil’s eyes flashed with resolve.
“Sure thing, but I activate the effect of a trap card in my graveyard! Marrella, I'm sorry I can't save you, but you still have the chance to save your buddy! I banish Rise To Full Height from my graveyard to activate its effect! By targeting Marrella, your monsters cannot attack for the rest of your turn, except to declare an attack on Marrella!"
The green fronds that made up Marrella’s body fluttered to mimic a courageous salute before Sartorius’s monster pulverized it. Phil returned the salute and then locked eyes with Sartorius.
“That’s that. You can’t attack any more of my monsters this turn due to Rise’s effect. Though my Marrella will be banished now that it has left the field as a monster, my Olenoides will live to fight another day.”
"You speak the truth." Sartorius nodded. "Very well. I move to my end phase. The Moon's effect activates, giving you control of The Empress.”
Sartorius flicked the monster card over to Phil, who caught it and glanced over its effect.
“Each time you normal summon a monster, I have to discard a card from my hand. Fuck you too.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“One face down card, one low-level monster, a monster that's nothing but a liability, and one card in his hand once he draws." Syrus gulped after he finished summarizing the duel in the mirror. It only filled a fragment of Banner’s magical device, but that fragment saw the entire group clustered around it.
“Bastion… does Phil have a chance?” Alexis asked in concern. Everyone, even Banner himself, turned to the one person who knew Phil the best.
Bastion rubbed his chin in thought.
“I… don’t know.” Bastion eventually confessed. “I’ve seen some of the cards Phil has used before, but this deck is new to me. The worst of it all is that does not seem to be the case for his opponent. That man has done his homework.”
Jaden slammed his fist against the table. “That’s just sneaky! I get that some people do it, but counter decks take the fun out of the game!”
Bastion nodded his agreement. “I’m guilty of making them myself, but you have a point. However, I won’t say that Phil’s out of the running for sure. You see that trap he retrieved from his graveyard, after the second Feather Duster?”
Rose arched an eyebrow. "Yes, of course. It has a powerful effect, I assume? My knight would not have wasted the effort to bring it back otherwise."
“Yup.” Bastion grinned. “He can negate the effect of a special summoned monster on the field and permanently halve its attack. It’s a pity he can’t activate it the turn it’s set, otherwise he could have stopped that man’s ‘Moon’ play in its tracks. But that alone won’t save Phil. I… darn it, I hate to admit this, but I simply do not know what he plans to do with that trap monster on his field.”
Banner’s tail swished in the air, but he simply peered down at the mirror in silent contemplation.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“During your standby phase, Tour of Doom’s effect activates!” Sartorius smoothly interrupted once Phil drew a card. The five-yen coin was flipped, and the ‘heads’ result was revealed.
Phil sneered. “Cool beans. That doesn’t matter because I don’t have any monsters to normal summon right now. Instead, here's another card I can abuse because of the lack of a proper ban list. I activate the spell card Pot of Greed! I draw two cards!"
As soon as those two cards shot into Phil’s hand, he smirked, placed two cards face down, and gave a little bow. “That’s all for me. I switch The Empress into defense position and end my turn.”
Sartorius glanced at Phil’s face down card, but ultimately ignored it in favor of starting his own turn.
“Draw.” Sartorius let out a chilling grin upon seeing the new addition to his hand. “Heh. Your fighting spirit is admirable. I wonder how long it will last in the face of my onslaught! After all, you only have so many copies of that Rise To Full Height card available. I move to my battle phase! The Moon shall destroy your final Paleozoic monster!”
Phil let out a laugh of his own. “If it could attack in the first place! At the start of your battle phase, I activate the trap card, Threatening Roar! You cannot declare an attack this turn!”
A small measure of irritation finally flashed across Sartorius’s face, lasting no longer than a second or two, but Phil still noticed it. The turn ended without any further moves and Phil drew a card. As soon as the coin flip was made and passed for Tour of Doom, Phil leaped into his main phase and revealed a spell from his hand. It was another chance to see a card that could deal with the shackles placed around his arms.
“Pot of Greed, once more!” Phil glanced at the two new cards in his hand and let out a grim smile. “Next, the quick-play spell Forbidden Chalice! I target Vanity’s Fiend with its effect. Until the end of this turn, Fiend’s effect is negated, and it will gain 400 attack points.”
Vanity’s Fiend (2400/1200) -> (2800/1200).
Sartorius scowled but ultimately said nothing in response.
“Next up is Lost Wind!” Phil flipped over his final face down trap. “Because you special summoned your monster via Reasoning, I can target Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon with its effect, permanently both halving its attack and negating its effect! Chaining to the activation of Lost Wind, I trigger the effect of Paleozoic Canadia in my graveyard, which was sent there last turn! He’s special summoned as a level two monster with 1200 attack and zero defense!”
Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon (2800/2800 -> 1400/2800).
“Now…” Phil’s grin was bordering on maniacal. His teeth were bared, still covered in flecks of blood from damage taken in the duels leading up to this moment. “I overlay the level two Paleozoic Olenoides with the level two Paleozoic Canadia to XYZ summon Paleozoic Opabinia (0/2400) in defense position!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
There was a flash of brown scaley skin, and then the full quarter of the mirror showing the duel between Phil and the seer shattered.
Banner waved his tail and the shards of glass, which had burst out of the mirror with the force of buckshot being expelled from a shotgun, halted in mid-air, with the closest shards being mere centimeters away from Chazz’s and Bastion’s eyes. The other three-quarters of the mirror trembled, but ultimately remained in one piece.
“X…YZ summon?” Bastion muttered in confusion.
Jasmine and Mindy turned to look at the Ra Yellow boy, known throughout the school for his nearly bottomless pool of game knowledge.
“Have you heard of it?” Mindy asked.
But Bastion shook his head helplessly. "No… I'm afraid I haven't a clue what it is. It appears to be something similar to fusion summoning, requiring two specific monsters as fuel for the summon, but beyond that, I haven't the faintest idea."
“It’s a power created specifically by that boy.” Banner’s calm voice interrupted the confusion of the students. They all turned to him with question marks in their eyes, silently begging the professor to elaborate.
Banner swept the glass away with a flick of his paw and directed the remaining cameras of the half-broken mirror away from the duel, not even leaving a single one in the vicinity of the clash between champions.
“A new form of summoning, one that takes monsters with the same level and combines them to beckon forth power from beyond the cosmos itself. It is how Phil turns his weak trap and frog monsters into nearly unstoppable behemoths. Each one possesses effects of unfathomable power, and his deck is specifically made to summon those monsters with surprising speed.”
Bastion nodded and took the information in stride.
“I see. Leave it to Phil to create a whole new way to play the game.” He concluded. “But, Professor Banner, even I haven’t seen him use this power. How do you know of it?”
Banner darkly chuckled.
“Because I watched him use this power to murder Marco Bernardello in the abandoned dorm. Even that pro duelist was swept away like leaves in a storm in the face of Phillip Jenson’s calm wrath. Once I knew it was possible, I spent an extraordinary amount of time learning it myself. Ah, before you ask,” Banner smiled and interrupted Bastion before he could get another word out, “it took me months to learn how to do it without my body being literally torn apart from the backlash. You kids would likely die if you attempted to do it without proper preparations.”
Bastion turned away to look at the mirror with a troubled gaze. The magical camera views, at least what were left intact, showed a calm, clear night. It was a night that was the direct opposite in temperament to the brutal, high-level duel being conducted at that very moment on the cliffside.
The barrage had ended, and Bastion could see someone moving in the distance. Zane and Atticus's attention snapped to focus on what Bastion had seen, and the two Obelisk Blues shouted a warning to the rest.
The second part of the invasion had begun.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Opabinia, show off your effect!” Phil shouted. “I detach one material from my monster to add one Paleozoic trap card from my deck to my hand.”
“Continuous trap card, activate! Head Judging!” Sartorius laughed in sheer exaltation as he flipped over his final face down card. As a robed woman carrying two signs, one with a red circle, and one with a blue x, walked onto the field, Sartorius explained the effect of his trap.
"While Head Judging is on the field and a monster effect is activated, I can force the owner of that monster to flip a coin and call it. If you call it wrong, the monster's effect is negated and the control of that monster is changed to the opponent. If you call it right, Head Judging will be sent to the graveyard.”
Phil bit back a curse and narrowed his eyes. Sartorius had already succeeded in every single coin flip he’d tried so far. Multiple Cups of Ace, the Couple of Aces, countless successes with Tour of Doom and Light Barrier. The Arcana Force monsters were already rigged due to the effect of the man’s field spell, but that was still some serious luck. He flicked his eyes toward Lumina, who caught his glance and shrugged helplessly.
Tossing the coin himself would potentially cut some trickery out if Sartorius truly was cheating… but if it was magic-based…
“D.3.S., are you catching anything tricky?” Phil muttered out of the side of his mouth. For a moment there was no response, but eventually a croaked ‘no’ floated out of thin air.
That… was the part Phil dreaded most. He didn’t think that D.3.S. Frog would allow any blatant magical cheating. That was usually something that ended in a penalty game in the anime and manga. So, either Sartorius was one lucky bastard, or he had magic that was stronger or sneakier than Phil’s duel spirit.
“Fine, but I’m using my own coin.” Phil shot back and dug in his pocket for one of the quarters he’d acquired in America after his duel against Conspicuous Sam. The actual type of coin hardly mattered. What was important was that his opponent had never handled that coin and hadn’t the time to mess with it.
“Calling heads.” Phils shortly declared and tossed the coin as high into the air as he could manage. It tumbled over and over again, flashing under the brilliant moonlight. Its arc slowed, and then the coin tumbled down to land on Phil’s palm. He slapped it onto the back of his hand and revealed the result.
Tails.
While the brown, scaley aquatic creature let out a cry of distress from its fanged mouth upon seeing the result, Phil let out a violent string of profanity that would make a sailor blush in shame. Soon after that, the robed judge lady raised the stick that had the blue ‘x’ marked on the end of it, and Paleozoic Opabinia was dragged by invisible hands across the field to settle next to Vanity’s Fiend.
“I do believe the state of your field is somewhat precarious.” Sartorius’s gentle voice floated from the opposite side of the duel field. “No face downs remaining, scarce amounts of cards in your graveyard, no monsters on the field aside from my Empress, and one card left in your hand. It’s okay. You fought as hard as you could. No one would blame you for just… giving up. The Light is but a gentle warmth. Being brought to serve it is the most wonderful feeling as that gentle warmth settles around your shoulders like a warm blanket in the midst of winter. I respect your drive to fight. But it’s okay. The Light will take care of you. Lean back and let it envelop you.”
"Fuck off you dumb cunt. I'll shove your Light so far up your ass they’ll think your head is a flashlight. I place one card face down and end my turn.”
Vanity’s Fiend (2800/1200 -> 2400/1200).
Sartorius raised his eyebrows in response to Phil’s continued barrage of curses and drew a card.
“A wise move to reduce the number of cards in your hand to zero before my turn starts. Very well. I shall start my turn by activating the spell card Pot of Duality. I will excavate the top three cards of my deck and add one of those cards to my hand. Then I shuffle the other two cards back into my deck.”
Sartorius flipped over three cards to reveal the continuous trap card Fairy Box, the spell card Dark Hole, and the monster card Arcana Force EX – The Light Ruler.
“My choice shall be Fairy Box.” Sartorius gently smiled and added the card to his hand before shuffling the rest into his deck. “The others were nice in their own ways, but not immediately useful. Anyway, I place one card face down and move to my battle phase.”
“At the start of battle!” Phil snapped out, “I activate my continuous trap card, Crackdown! I’m gonna take control of your Vanity’s Fiend for the foreseeable future, though it can’t attack while Crackdown has control of it.”
“I shall end my turn then, as I currently possess no monsters capable of defeating Vanity’s Fiend.” Sartorius concluded, flicking his eyes to glance at the Wheel of Fortune card floating in the air.
It was still sideways, completely undecided.
Phil drew a card. and once more Sartorius successfully flipped a ‘heads’ result for Tour of Doom’s effect, preventing Phil from normal summoning and flip summoning for the rest of the turn.
"Here we go," Phil muttered. Lumina peered around his shoulder and silently pumped her fist in the air after reading the effect of the card Phil had just drawn.
Phil held the single card left in his hand out for his opponent to see.
“Card of Demise, activate! This spell card allows me to draw until I have three cards in my hand. Furthermore, for the rest of my turn, you will take no damage, and I will have to send my entire hand to the graveyard at the end of this turn. I suppose I am also locked out of special summoning during this turn, but it is what it is.”
Phil slid three cards off the top of his deck and smiled after looking at the contents of his new hand.
"Lady Luck finally smiles her sweet smile on me. I place all three cards face down and end my turn.”
“It seems my little Empress ploy is meaningless after all.” Sartorius commented as he drew a card to start his turn, and then once more succeeded in the coin toss to keep Light Barrier’s effect going. “Very well. One cannot say that I did not try. I activate Graceful Charity. It allows me to draw three cards and discard two.”
Phil’s eyes narrowed. The seer was going through some serious draw power. It was getting to the point where the amount of draw power his opponent was seeing was a bit…suspicious. Just like the consistent good luck with the coin flips.
Fuck. His eyes widened as the thought struck him. Sartorius directly served one of the forces he was tasked with taking out, the Light. He wasn’t one of those villains that had fate or luck hacks, right?
Shit.
“Sorry mate, but I can’t let you do that.” Phil rapidly held out his hand to pause Sartorius after the name of his spell card was declared. If there truly were luck hacks involved, then Phil had to simplify the game as much as possible to reduce how many ways luck could come into play. Reducing the amount of draw power at the man’s fingertips would be an important part of that.
“I activate my continuous trap card, Imperial Order! While it remains on the field, all spell effects are negated!”
“It seems that card proves as a disadvantage to the both of us.” Sartorius observed. His tone was light, as though he hardly cared that his card was negated. “I will enter my battle phase, now. No sense in allowing you to keep my Empress if her effect does not harm your plans! The Moon shall annihilate The Empress!”
With barely enough attack to clear over the defense of Phil’s monster, the shining metal tentacles of The Moon casually crushed the head of the blue alien monster. Now, the only thing between Phil and Sartorius’s array of monsters was a Vanity’s Fiend that couldn’t even attack, yet still retained its crippling anti-special summon continuous effect.
"During my second main phase," Sartorius said as he smoothly transitioned out of the battle phase, "I summon Arcana Force VI – The Lovers (1600/1600) in attack mode. Light Barrier is negated by your trap card, so allow me to make the coin flip."
Just as before, the five-yen coin revealed a 'heads' result.
"That effect allows me to treat it as two tributes toward the summon of an Arcana Force monster, though I will not use it for something like that quite yet. That will be all."
On Sartorius’s field, a strange monster in a black dress settled into the air near the side of the cliff, keening a strange, yet nostalgic tune that felt like it was bemoaning a long-lost love. Its hands were almost comically large, and its body was littered with odd pink orbs that shone under the moonlight.
Once Phil drew a card to start his turn, two things happened. First, Sartorius succeeded in flipping for the 'heads' effect for Tour of Doom. Secondly, Phil's life points ticked down due to the maintenance cost of Imperial Order.
Phil: 3300 Sartorius: 4000
“First blood.” Sartorius nodded toward the decreasing life point counter. “It is quite interesting that it happens at the hands of your own card, and so late into the duel at that.”
“Pft.” Phil snorted. “We aren’t that far in yet. And I wouldn’t worry about that card if I were you. This duel will be over long before it kills me with the cost. Check this out! First off, I activate the effect of my trap card, Compulsory Evacuation Device! I’m going to return Vanity’s Fiend back to your hand.”
Sartorius’s grin was chilling, yet wooden at the same time. His eyes were wide, as if they were boring into Phil’s very existence.
And overhead, the Wheel of Fortune card trembled. It did not move upright, nor did it reverse itself, but the card trembled.
“Secondly, I activate Paleozoic Olenoides as a part of a separate chain! ‘Noides, crush that dumbass Macro Cosmos! Then I’ll chain a Paleo effect from my graveyard. Allow me to milk a little bit more card advantage from that one single turn of yours where Macro Cosmos was negated by my Infinite Impermanence, oh so long ago! Paleozoic Dinomischus (1200/0), which was one of the cards milled by Needlebug Nest, will trigger to special summon itself in defense position. I will then place one card face down and end my turn!”
“Very little advantage, it seems.” Sartorius’s chilling smile washed over Phil, who deflected it with a vicious smirk.
Phil flipped over his face down as soon as Sartorius’s turn began, pausing only to pay the maintenance cost of 700 life points once again for Imperial Order.
Phil: 2600 Sartorius: 4000
“It’s time for round two in the ring with Needlebug Nest! I’m gonna mill the top five cards of my deck, and there’s nothing you can do about it! Furthermore, since your Vanity’s Fiend is still off the field, I can trigger the effect of my final Paleo in the graveyard, Paleozoic Marrella (1200/0)!”
One, two, a full five cards were sent spiraling from Phil’s deck to replenish his graveyard while the familiar green, seaweed-like aqua monster floated onto Phil’s field to settle next to the neon-blue tentacles of Dinomischus.
Once Phil nodded to Sartorius to continue on with his turn, the seer wasted no time at all. In the standby phase, the coin flip was made and passed for Light Barrier. Then, as soon as his main phase started, the weakened Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon was sacrificed to tribute summon Vanity’s Fiend, restoring the anti-special summon lock once more.
“Now! My battle phase-!”
“Does not exist!” Phil interrupted Sartorius and finished his sentence. “One of the cards I milled via Needlebug Nest was a little dude by the name of Electromagnetic Turtle (0/1800)! While he’s in the graveyard, I can banish him to end your battle phase immediately! Of course, since his effect activates in the graveyard instead of on the field, your Head Judging trap will not be able to stop it.”
Right as the battle phase began, a metallic turtle with the letters S and N tattooed on the bottom of its shell popped out of Phil’s graveyard, blasting Sartorius’s monsters with a magnetic blast that disoriented them just enough that they couldn’t move, much less attack.
“I place one card face down and end my turn.” Sartorius’s face settled into a blank look as he passed the turn to Phil.
“I draw.”
Once Phil declared that action, Sartorius tossed the five-yen coin to reapply Tour of Doom’s effect and immediately chained a card of his own.
“The trap card, Dust Tornado, activates!” Sartorius declared with a sickly grin. “Your Imperial Order trap is destroyed!”
Just like that, Imperial Order was blown away into the wind. At this point, it was both a blessing and a curse. Phil could activate his spell cards again, but so could Sartorius. Meanwhile, Vanity’s Fiend made him unable to special summon, and even if he did, if Phil was right about Sartorius’s abilities, then Head Judging was a sure-fire negation of his monster effects. Of course there was also Tour of Doom still waiting on the sidelines to stop his normal summons. In essence, Sartorius’s field formed a multi-layer attack and defense, with each card providing a different layer. Special summons, monster effects on the field, normal summons, flip summons, and then the Fairy Box that was still face down could foil attacks. Combined with the old-fashioned beatdown by the decent attack values of Vanity’s Fiend and The Lovers, it was almost perfect.
Almost.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Lumina’s arms trembled with adrenaline gained by merely watching the duel before her very eyes. It was a brutal back and forth, one where each turn was a turn she dreaded was going to be Phil’s final one. Each turn his life point counter ticked lower to zero. Each turn Sartorius stacked yet another roadblock in front of Phil’s plays. Yet, the troublesome guy continued to bulldoze forward, taking another tiny centimeter of advantage for himself each turn.
That’s what he was, troublesome. Ever since they first met, when she was an annoyed duel spirit forced into the mortal world by bosses that only cared about numbers going up on spreadsheets, and he was an annoying drunkard trying to cope with the reality of his own death. But now? He wasn’t as annoying, and she wasn’t as annoyed. Now they were buddies who were troublesome together. It was hard to go through a road trip like they had during the summer without something like that happening, even though her bosses at the company would definitely get her in trouble for getting this close to her charge.
Now if only she could actually do something to help.
Lumina glanced up into the sky. Phil couldn’t see him, and she didn’t think Sartorius could either.
The very sight of that creature made her skin crawl. Even though it was on Phil’s side, D.3.S. Frog was the most horrifying duel spirit she’d ever met. More petrifying than Judgment Dragon. More fear-inducing than the one time she’d glimpsed the shadow of Slifer the Sky Dragon moving above the tumultuous clouds in the spirit world.
D.3.S. Frog was watching the duel silently, floating in the sky like an ominous green moon. Its eyes motionlessly watched Sartorius's every move. From his draws to his card activations. Everything. It was almost like the colossal, murderous frog was waiting for some sort of signal to pounce.
However, until that signal happened, the two duel spirits simply watched as Phil used every ounce of his skill and luck to thread the needle through the impossibly small gaps in Sartorius’s defense.
"Come on, Phil," Lumina whispered, her words too quiet for Phil to hear them. “You’ve got to win.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Heh, I feel like I’m back on Earth playing in a regional tournament, except for my opponent’s deck is shitty and he’s blatantly cheating enough to cover for its weaknesses. I told you earlier that you would rue the day that I would regain access to my graveyard.”
Phil paused to laugh mockingly. “You dumb fuck, I’m about to continue showing you why! I activate the graveyard effect of Breakthrough Skill, milled through my last Needlebug Nest! During my turn, I can banish it from the graveyard to negate the effect of your Vanity’s Fiend for the duration of this turn.”
Phil then gestured to the zone Imperial Order had once been in.
“This card was pretty useful when I first activated it, but thanks for destroying it. My Imperial Order’s usefulness has long since passed. Oh, and extra thanks for being so trigger-happy that you didn't even wait for me to pay the cost in my standby phase. It’s thanks to you that I still have the life points to do what I’m about to do. See, I have a little bit of luck myself. I activate a spell card that is absurdly. Fucking. Broken. At least when used under the proper circumstances.”
He took a moment to breathe in the night air, and then Phil revealed his spell card.
"Dimension Fusion, activate. I pay 2000 life points, and both players will special summon as many of their removed-from-play monsters as possible. Which, thanks to you chaining Macro Cosmos to That Grass Looks Greener, equals to about half my frog engine."
The Wheel of Fortune card trembled in mid-air.
Phil: 600 Sartorius: 4000