“Get your game on!”
Those words echoed across the cliff face, skirting over the broken trees, against the deep gouges carved into the earth, and around the harsh beams of moonlight filtering down from the heavens. There was something about that declaration. Filled with decisiveness, strength, and some amount of anger – but also with a certain feeling that made Sartorius idly wonder if despite the circumstances of their duel, of the chaos on the island… was Jaden Yuki still somehow looking forward to their duel?
The brown-haired boy, still covered in his usual bright red jacket denoting the dorm he belonged to, seemed barely even out of breath from his race through the jungle. The duel disk on his arm gleamed under the moonlight, already slotted with his deck of choice.
Another thing that made Sartorius idly wonder. He couldn’t see it. He could still view it in the physical sense, of course. The cards were right in front of his eyes in that duel disk. No, the part he couldn’t see was the future. He could not see a future that revealed to him the contents of that deck. He knew there should be one out there that would show him. The two were fated to duel, of course. All Sartorius needed to do was find the future in which they dueled and observe the proceedings.
Yet every time he tried, something blocked him. In one future it was a thick green leg, damp with swamp water and thicker than a million-year-old tree trunk. The leg stood between his sight and the revealed contents of the boy’s deck. In another future it was a humanoid figure with the wings of a bat – no doubt the work of the Rebis. The creature’s wings enshrouded the boy’s body while a single finger wagged its disapproval toward Sartorius’s actions. Its rage towards Sartorius’s master truly was great, if that creature was willing to put aside its hatred for the boy, all to deny Sartorius a starting advantage. Even so, if it was just one or the other trying to block his sight, it wouldn’t be enough. But the two duel spirits… they seemed to be working together. Combining their power to reach heights that could even challenge the Light. They would not be able to overcome the Light's magic in a long-term battle, in terms of shrouding the tides of fate for a duel, well that was quite doable indeed.
“Very well.” Sartorius closed his eyes momentarily to hide his feelings of mild annoyance. The relevant futures were blocked to him, so he would need to do this the old-fashioned way. His eyes snapped open in a flash and his entire body was filled with fighting spirit. This was it. The key half was in the boy’s pocket. He could see part of the top sticking out of his jeans. Sartorius’s champion was facing the last vestiges of resistance in the classroom – dealing with the final three duelists all at once while his underlings finished the cleanup operation outside the building. The situation in the heavens was still undecided, as Seto Kaiba had yet to make his move, but that arrogant man would fall before the might of the Light’s dogma as soon as he began his advance. There was a certain sense of poetry to it all. Three final duels, set to happen at almost the exact same time, all fought to determine the tides of fate once and for all.
“I shall take the first turn.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jaden could feel a shiver moving down his spine. It wasn’t of fear, though he was really concerned about his friends. No, it was a shiver of excitement. This was a guy who’d beaten Phil. A serious Phil. That fella playing a serious game, well that was something Jaden had only heard of, never seen.
Moreover, his deck was filled with cards Jaden had never seen. He watched with wide eyes as Sartorius summoned Arcana Force III – The Empress (1300/1300) in defense position and threw a five-yen coin into the air. Jaden’s heart flew into the air with it. A coin toss deck. Something that heavily relied on luck, but that was what made it so exhilarating. What was it going to be? It was 50/50. A chance for the highest of highs, or the lowest of lows.
The coin settled on ‘heads’, which Sartorius explained would allow him to special summon an Arcana Force monster from his hand each time Jaden normal summoned a monster.
Two cards were placed face down, and then it was Jaden’s turn.
“Nice play bro!” Jaden grinned. The grey alien covered in blue armor wasn’t much to look at, but Jaden knew from its effect that the real plays were yet to come. Most likely, the ‘heads’ effect of The Empress would be used to summon a high-level monster without tributing it first.
Potentially scary… and potentially exciting! “First thing’s first! I activate E – Emergency Call!” Jaden shouted out. “Bringin’ out Elemental Hero Ice Edge (800/900)! Then I’m gonna summon him in attack position!”
Right as the short, ice-themed hero made his entrance, Sartorius slashed his hand forward to declare the effect of his monster.
“The Empress’s effect triggers! I can special summon one Arcana Force monster from my hand! Furthermore, in response to my own effect, I activate both of my trap cards. Continuous trap card, Proton Blast, and continuous trap card, Lucky Chance!”
Sartorius’s field flashed with blue and golden light as a monster dragged itself over the cliff to flop onto his field. Sartorius shouted out the word ‘heads’ before tossing his coin into the air.
Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon (2800/2800).
As soon as the ‘heads’ result was revealed, Sartorius gestured toward his three new cards.
“First off, Proton Blast’s effect triggers. A coin flip was successfully completed with the ‘heads’ result, so 500 points of damage will be inflicted to your life points. Then, because I called the coin toss in advance correctly, Lucky Chance will allow me to draw one card. Finally, Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon will unlock its ‘heads’ effect, allowing me to special summon one Moon Token (0/0) to my field during each of my standby phases.”
Jaden: 3500 Sartorius: 4000
Jaden patiently waited for his opponent to finish explaining all of the effects before moving into his next play. The combo was scary – essentially, each time Sartorius made a coin flip with the ‘heads’ result, Jaden would get hit for 500 points of damage. That meant seven ‘heads’ results after this would end the game.
But on the other hand…
"Just my luck!" Jaden crowed, "Since your face down cards are no longer secret, I can keep playing with no regrets! See, my boy Ice Edge might be a little bit on the weaker side, but he’s got friends in high, watery places! I activate the quick-play spell card Mask Change from my hand, sending the water attribute Ice Edge to the graveyard to special summon a Masked Hero of the same attribute, Masked Hero Acid (2600/2100)!”
A masked hero garbed in thick blue armor sprang out from behind a tree, wielding a comical purple squirt gun that spewed out less-than-comical amounts of burning acid onto Sartorius’s trap cards.
“He’s got a neat effect.” Jaden grinned. “When Acid is summoned, I can destroy every spell and trap card you control, and all your monsters lose 300 attack points.”
Arcana Force XVIII – The Moon (2800/2800 -> 2500/2500), Arcana Force III – The Empress (1300/1300 -> 1000/1300).
"That means…" Sartorius's eyebrows crinkled in thought. He looked rapidly between the hero monster and his moon alien.
Jaden nodded. “Yuppers. Let’s go to battle! Masked Hero Acid, destroy The Moon!”
The hero nodded and sat aside its squirt gun. Then it moved toward the tree it had popped out behind from, leaning over and grabbing what was revealed to be a large metal can of glowing green acid. Then the hero dashed over, dumped the vat of acid over the head of the silver and black robotic alien, and retreated while it watched the metal dissolve amid the alien’s tortured screams.
Jaden placed one card face down and ended his turn.
Jaden: 3500 Sartorius: 3900
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sartorius drew a card and glanced at the Wheel of Fortune card hovering in the air between him and his opponent. It was still undecided, much like it had been for the majority of his duel against Phillip Jenson. He still couldn’t see the end. Was it because of the interference? Was it because his master was focused on Seto Kaiba? He could see flashes of visions. His champion staring down three opponents – one garbed in yellow, another in blue, and the third in a rather fancy dress. Another flash of a vision replaced the first, showing a glimpse of Seto Kaiba shouting out an order for something to be launched – and then a flash of incoherent rage!
Sartorius stumbled back. Something had gone wrong in the heavens above.
With great effort he wrenched his attention back to earthly affairs. First, he would vanquish The Fool, then he would assist his master.
“I activate Mystical Space Typhoon!” Sartorius snapped out. A watery whirlwind whipped up, but Jaden immediately activated his face down card in response before it could be destroyed.
"Form Change!" Jaden hastily declared. "This quick-play spell lets me return Masked Hero Acid to the fusion deck to bring on out another Masked Hero with the same level but a different name! It’s a two-for-one sale, so show me how cool the new green suit looks! Let’s show him who’s boss, Masked Hero Divine Wind (2700/1900)!”
Arcana Force III – The Empress (1000/1300 -> 1300/1300).
The blue, mask-wearing hero disappeared in a flash of light as a green hero with a white cape and glowing red gauntlets dashed into position to take up a fighting stance on Jaden’s field.
Sartorius’s brow wrinkled. Yet another move unforeseen by fate. Were the threads of providence this hidden from his prying eyes?
“Fine. Cup of Ace, reveal yourself to me!” Sartorius threw the spell card onto his duel disk and tossed the five-yen coin high into the air.
Heads.
He drew two cards, instantly slotting both of them into his duel disk. One was a card that remained face down, a trap of some usefulness, the other revealed itself to be Arcana Force IV – The Emperor (1400/1400), which received its ‘heads’ effect to increase the attack of all Arcana Force monsters by 500 points.
Arcana Force III – The Empress (1300/1300 -> 1800/1300), Arcana Force IV – The Emperor (1400/1400 -> 1900/1400).
“I admit this is not enough to defeat your Divine Wind, but we as mere men must make do with what the Light gifts us with. I end my turn.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jaden started his turn, a sly grin on his face. Now that his fusion monster had lived to see another turn, he could start moving forward! On to victory, though still careful of whatever crazy plans his opponent had. That was the trick: he couldn’t be cocky, there was too much riding on this duel. That thought was always a sobering realization, though never enough to fully overshadow how crazy cool the duel was.
He looked at the new monster on Sartorius's field up and down. It was super alien-like in design, just like the other Arcana Force monsters. A skin of grey metal, folded wings, and several grasping black claws at the end of silvery appendages, claws that glowed with an ominous red light.
No doubt the dude was up to something nasty, summoning a monster weaker than Divine Wind in attack position and placing a card face down. The only reason to do that was if the face down card was some sort of battle trap. Otherwise, The Emperor would have been summoned into defense position.
Funny, that was something Jaden wouldn’t have noticed before coming to the academy, before having all those crazy cool duels with the rest of the gang.
“There’s no way I’ll fall for something like that!” Jaden announced. “Come on out, Elemental Hero Burstinatrix (1200/800)! She might not have the attack points to overpower any of your monsters, but she’s an Elemental Hero, which is what I need right now! Now that I have an Elemental Hero on the board, I activate the spell card R – Righteous Justice, which destroys spells and traps on the field equal to the number of Elemental Heroes I control. That’s one, so your face down goes bye-bye!”
The face down card was sent scattering to the graveyard, briefly revealing the sight of Fairy Box. Jaden breathed a quick sigh of relief. He knew that card from seeing Joey Wheeler’s duels. It was nasty for sure!
“Ah, sorry, sorry.” Jaden waved his hand in apology. “You’re too much of a lucky guy to have access to a card like that!”
Sartorius wordlessly stared at him, as if he was willing Jaden to hurry the hell up and get on with his turn.
“Ah! Right.” Jaden sheepishly nodded his head. “I’ll go ahead to my battle phase. Now that you don’t have any face down cards, my Divine Wind can attack without fear! Since you didn't use her effect in response to my normal summon, I don't think you have any super-strong monsters in your hand, but it never hurts to make sure. Divine Wind, destroy The Empress!”
A blast of supersonic wind sliced the head of the regel alien clean off, which then triggered Divine Wind’s effect to draw a card, something that could happen each time it destroyed a monster by battle.
“I think I’ll throw down three face downs and end my turn!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sartorius wrenched a card off the top of his deck. The Fool’s luck remained intact. Somehow, for some reason, even the Light was not able to influence it.
But that simply meant Sartorius’s luck would get all the better, from the Light’s increased focus.
“Reasoning!” Sartorius declared and revealed the spell card in his hand, but before he could slot it into his duel disk, Jaden spoke up.
“Not gonna happen!” The Slifer Red shouted and flipped over one of his trap cards. “I’ve seen Phil use that card way too many times. I activate the counter trap, Protection of the Elements! By banishing Elemental Hero Burstinatrix from my field until the end phase, I can negate and destroy your spell card!”
A flash of green light and Sartorius’s card was nothing but dust in the wind. The flaming female hero on Jaden’s field was temporarily gone, but that meant little. It would be back by the end of the turn.
“Couple of Aces (100/100), then!” Sartorius revealed a monster in his hand. “I activate its effect, calling the ‘heads’ result! If I call it right, I special summon this monster to my field and draw two cards!”
The five-yen coin flew into the air.
Heads.
Two smiling ace cards settled onto his field and Sartorius drew two cards. It was another chance to make things right.
“Twin-Barrel Dragon (1700/200), come to me! Reveal your effect!”
A blue mechanical dragon scampered onto the field, cocking the gun that made up its head as Sartorius explained its effect.
“When it’s summoned, I can target one card you control. A coin toss is performed twice, and if I get two heads, your card is destroyed. My target is Divine Wind.”
Sartorius threw two five-yen coins into the air. He already knew what they would show before they even hit the ground. The Light shone upon his actions.
Heads.
Heads.
The green-armored hero was torn to pieces under the might of his monster’s saturation fire, and Sartorius leaped into his battle phase.
“As foreseen! Mystical Space Typhoon will destroy your middle face down card” Sartorius barked out the commands. “Emperor, Twin-Barrel, strike my lowly opponent directly!”
“Not so fast!” Jaden hastily flipped over another face down card, even after his first face down, Change of Hero – Reflector Ray, was destroyed by the typhoon. “Haven’t you heard? It’s no good to end a duel too early! I activate my quick-play spell card, Flute of Summoning Kuriboh! Come on out to my field in defense position, buddy!”
Right in the nick of time, a brown furry blob with pure white angel wings floated in front of the bullets launched from Twin-Barrel Dragon's head, stopping the attack dead in the air before Jaden's life points could be harmed.
“When my buddy’s destroyed,” Jaden grinned, “I don’t take damage for the rest of the turn. ‘Preciate that, buddy.”
Sartorius scowled. Another miniature roadblock. Barely existing, yet just enough to stop his advance for another turn.
“I place one card face down and end my turn.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jaden let loose a tiny cheer in his head as his blazing hero buddy reappeared on the field, ready for battle with spitting fireballs hovering over her palms. The back and forth was brutal, but that made the duel even better!
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He could see Burstinatrix giving him a concerned side-eye, but Jaden disregarded the expression. He couldn’t help it! Dueling was just so much fun!
"During your standby phase!" Sartorius jolted Jaden out of his excitement. "I activate the continuous trap card Tour of Doom! I'll flip a coin to decide its effect! On a heads result, you cannot normal or flip summon this turn! On a tails, that effect is applied to me instead!”
Heads.
Jaden mentally shrugged. Floodgates. He was used to them at this point. At least it wasn’t something super annoying like Gravity Bind, a card that seemed to make it into half of Phil’s and Bastion’s decks by now.
“Fine by me! I activate Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two cards! Then feast your eyes on this! Polymerization, fusing Burstinatrix with Elemental Hero Avian to form Elemental Hero Flame Wingman (2100/1200)!
All around them the air exploded with heat as a new hero made its entrance, an alien-like hero with a single angelic wing and a red dragon head for a hand flew onto the field.
Jaden grinned. He always loved summoning that hero, one of his most reliable fusion monsters. His hand sliced through the air like a seasoned commander ordering his veteran troops to conduct an all-out attack.
“Flame Wingman! Take The Emperor out, and I don’t mean to dinner! Strike with all ya’ got!”
The dragon's head struck with all the speed and viciousness of a viper, catching the grey alien in its jaws and crushing it between them as fire was sprayed out of the dragon's mouth, spreading into the sky as if declaring a definite and final victory over the strange monster. Several gouts of flame washed over Sartorius’s body, burning the man due to the effect of Flame Wingman that would deal damage equal to The Emperor’s attack in the graveyard.
Jaden: 3500 Sartorius: 2300
And just like that, Jaden pulled ahead in life points.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sartorius ignored the stinging burns on his leg. This duel… was one that demanded every inch of his focus as the Light became distracted by the war being fought on three fronts. A lotus flower of burning lightning crackling through the heavens. The incoherent, mad screams of frogs fighting a trio of desperate defenders. All threatened to overshadow his focus on the duel in front of his eyes. The duel that had become nothing but a slugfest, simple yet deadly. Both duelists had nearly nonexistent hands, reliant on lucky draws.
For the first time that he could remember, Sartorius had met a duelist whose luck equaled his own.
“Draw!” Sartorius bit out the words amid the crackling flames that now surrounded the two duelists. The situation was precarious. A single card from either side could be enough to tip the balance. “I sacrifice Couple of Aces and Twin-Barrel Dragon to tribute summon Arcana Force XV – The Fiend (2500/2500)!” Sartorius bellowed. Behind him, the hook-ended tentacles of the alien monster, its three bulging eyes entirely focused on Jaden Yuki, emerged from the darkness to face the stalwart hero head-on. The two monsters stared each other down while the golden shine of the five-yen coin flashed under the moonlight. Tension filled the air, like the string of a bow, drawn back but yet to fire or snap.
Heads.
As soon as the result was revealed, The Fiend struck. Its tentacles dug deep into Flame Wingman's side, two of them holding the hero in place while the third ripped the wing off the monster's back, and the fourth tore through its head in a scarlet explosion of gore that splattered across the cliffside.
Yet, that wasn’t its attack. Not in full, at least.
“The Fiend’s effect is simple.” Sartorius smugly gestured toward his monster. “When an attack is declared involving my monster, I can destroy a monster on the field and inflict 500 points of damage to its controller. Now that your Flame Wingman is out of the way… strike! Directly!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jaden groaned under the pressure of the monster’s strike. It felt like his body was shoved in a pressure cooker and left to stew for days on end. His bones creaked and his flesh was singed, but despite all that…
He could feel a scaly hand pressed against his back, giving him the strength to stay standing. Jaden knew that if he looked behind himself, nothing would be there, but still he felt that hand. It was familiar enough to touch. After all, it had torn him apart countless times in his dreams. A strange sensation, for the hand to be reassuring him instead of hurting him.
Jaden: 500 Sartorius: 2300
The fact that Sartorius simply ended his turn after that was the clearest sign of all that his opponent, similar to Jaden himself, was relying on nothing but luck to keep going. Their hands were depleted, yet their arms still moved to draw the next card in this brutal back-and-forth slugfest.
“Here we go!” Jaden roared once Tour of Doom was finished applying its ‘heads’ effect, “Elemental Hero Bubbleman (800/1200), right in the nick of time! He’s the only card in my hand and I don’t have anything on the field, so I can special summon him in defense position and draw two cards!”
Two cards flashed into Jaden’s hand and he slapped them onto the field without a second of hesitation.
“Bubble Illusion, followed in combination by the trap card, Expendable Dai! While Bubbleman is on the field, Bubble Illusion allows me to activate a trap card from my hand without setting it first. Expendable Dai, meanwhile, lets me tribute my warrior-type Bubbleman to destroy your Arcana Force monster. I also get to draw a card after that.”
Bubbleman waved his blaster like a magician’s wand and in an instant, The Fiend was destroyed.
“Phil told me to stop playing Bubble Illusion,” Jaden shrugged, “But I think its effect sure comes in handy! Especially because the card I just drew is O – Oversoul! Bringing the woman herself back to life, Elemental Hero Burstinatrix (1200/800)!”
Like a phoenix being reborn from the ashes, the red-clothed woman burst onto the scene with fireballs roaring at her fingertips.
Jaden pointed right at Sartorius. “Your field’s open dude, so get ready for a flaming serving of fiery justice! Burstinatrix, show Sartorius what happens when you mess with my friends! Directly attack!”
Jaden: 500 Sartorius: 1200
One more attack to either duelist would signal the end.
“I’ll give you a slugfest!” Sartorius snarled in a rare loss in his usual smooth decorum. He glanced at the Wheel of Fortune card. It was still perfectly still, perfectly sideways. “My luck is better! Pot of Greed shall see me two cards richer, and Arcana Force VI – The Lovers (1600/1600) will overpower your defenses!”
The five-yen coin was thrown into the air, rising higher than the tallest trees and settling on the warm grass.
Heads.
“From now on, The Lovers is treated as two tributes for the summon of an Arcana Force monster. But that doesn’t matter.” Sartorius spat. “The Lovers will destroy your so-called flaming justice! Destroy Burstinatrix!
Jaden: 100 Sartorius: 1200
Jaden’s heart leaped into his throat as the attack left him an inch away from defeat. Still, a grin was spread wide across his face.
Exciting!
Truly exciting!
What would his next card be? Which hero would have his back next? Which trap would show its face? Which spell would announce its thundering presence over the field?
Sartorius placed one card face down, but Jaden hardly noticed it, so great was his excitement.
“Here goes something!” Jaden shouted and drew a card. He glanced at it, even while the ‘heads’ result was being shown for Tour of Doom. “One monster in face down defense position, then that’s all for me.”
“That’s all?” Sartorius smirked, but a single glance at the still-quiet Wheel of Fortune caused his face to quickly sober. “I see. Allow me to further probe your defenses. Serve me, Arcana Force I – The Magician (1100/1100)!”
The coin tumbled through the air.
Heads.
Jaden grimaced. Every single coin flip since the start of the game had ended with the perfect result to benefit his opponent. Something wasn’t right, it didn’t add up in his noggin’.
That didn’t stop Sartorius from attacking, though.
“The Magician attacks your face down card!”
The declaration distracted Jaden from his whirling thoughts and he flipped over his face down monster with a smile.
“Sorry dude, but here’s Wroughtweiler (800/1200), with just enough defense to tell you no way, Jose!”
Seconds later, The Lovers atomized the mechanical dog, who disappeared with a whine of pain. Jaden nodded his head in appreciation of his buddy’s sacrifice and revealed its effect.
“When Wroughtweiler breathes its last, I can take one Elemental Hero monster and one Polymerization spell card from my graveyard to add to my hand! Come on back, Burstinatrix!”
Sartorius’s turn ended with no further actions, allowing Jaden another moment to breathe cleanly. He was still in the game by the skin of his teeth.
“Draw!” Jaden revealed his hand immediately, cheering as for the first time since the duel started, Sartorius failed the coin flip for Tour of Doom. That cheer wasn’t long for the world, as while the coin flip had indeed failed, Sartorius immediately re-balanced the scales by flipping over his face down card.
“Non-Fusion Area activates!” Sartorius called out, “While this continuous trap card remains on the field, neither of us can conduct fusion summons!”
Several green nets filled the air to float freely in hopes of catching any fusion monster that tried to pass through, almost as if some unknown fisherman had a raging thirst that only purple-bordered cardboard could slake.
Jaden shrugged. Sure, he’d been thinking about bringing out Steam Healer with that Polymerization he’d just gotten back, but, well, when in Rome…
"First I'm gonna summon Burstinatrix for what I think is either round three or round four by now! She ain't no quitter, papa Jaden ain't raised no quitters at all! Then I’m gonna reveal my spell card H – Heated Heart! Burstinatrix gains 500 attack points until the end of my turn!”
Elemental Hero Burstinatrix (1200/800 -> 1700/800).
The flames around Burstinatrix roared to almost unbearable temperatures, but the red hero was utterly unphased, simply wiping the blood and grime accumulated from her consecutive deaths off her face as she readied herself to plunge back into the maelstrom of battle.
“Which is enough attack points to defeat my Lovers.” Sartorius frowned once he realized the implications, but soon revealed a smile of his own. “Though now that a spell card has been activated, The Magician’s attack points will be doubled until the end of this turn!”
Arcana Force I – The Magician (1100/1100 -> 2200/1100).
Jaden grimaced now that the effect was revealed. That meant if Sartorius drew a usable spell card next turn, his goose was cooked.
Then he shrugged. Next turn was next turn, and he had no way to switch Burstinatrix to the defense position anyway.
“Fine by me!” Jaden hollered and gave a firm nod to his flaming hero. “Burstinatrix, destroy The Lovers! No easy tribute summons are allowed on my watch!”
Jaden: 100 Sartorius: 1000
Sartorius’s life points trickled down by another 100 points as the fiery hero immolated the dress-wearing alien. Then with Bubbleman still in defense position, Jaden ended his turn.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sartorius groaned and shook his head. His body ached, but he could not rest yet. His mind trembled, but his connection with the Light… he could see too much! It was enough to make a man go mad… already the connection was shaking. Whatever was happening in the heavens, from what he felt and what few scraps he could see, the duel was unfathomable. Intense enough that his luck finally slipped a notch, failing a coinflip that would have stopped Burstinatrix from being summoned. He couldn’t tell for sure what was happening. Only that something had greatly angered the Light, and for the first time in recorded history, his master had engaged a mere mortal in a duel.
He wrenched his eyes open and drew a card, frowning as it revealed itself. A fine card, but nothing that could end the game quite yet.
“I activate the spell card Hammer Shot, destroying your face up monster with the highest attack points! That’ll be Burstinatrix. Then since my Magician’s attack points are doubled, I order for a strike on your Bubbleman! Clear the field!”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jaden moved his hand to draw a card, but it felt like a great weight was settled on his arm. The limb was downright difficult to move. His heart fluttered… and he heard a voice.
“I am near.”
Jaden blinked and then the weight was gone. He pulled the card off the top of his deck and grinned.
“Talk about timing! Fifth Hope lets me shuffle five Elemental Hero cards from my graveyard back into my deck, in exchange for drawing two cards! It’s a pity I still have Polymerization in my hand, otherwise I’d be drawing three cards, but this works too.”
Elemental Hero Ice Edge, Elemental Hero Avian, Elemental Hero Burstinatrix, Elemental Hero Bubbleman, and Elemental Hero Flame Wingman were all shuffled away, and Jaden drew two more cards.
“I AM NEAR! WAIT TO DESTROY THE FIELD UNTIL I HAVE ARRIVED!”
The voice thundered away in his brain. Jaden grasped his head in pain but ultimately soldiered through. He had a feeling about who was speaking, and he had a feeling about what he needed to do next.
“Here’s a Reasoning of my own!” Jaden shouted. The voice was familiar. Familiar enough that he decided to wait to use his other card until Reasoning had finished resolving. “Pick a level, any level! I assume you know the rest since you tried to use this same card earlier in the duel.”
Sartorius nodded. “Four.”
One card, two cards, three cards slipped off the edge of Jaden’s deck before a monster was revealed. The weight on Jaden’s arm returned, heavier than ever. That card… his eyes flashed with fighting spirit. That card, in combination with the spell in his hand, the opening would be perfect!
“Sorry Sarty! Here comes a new friend of mine, given to me by another friend, good ol’ Phil! The level ten Yubel (0/0)!”
Sartorius’s eyes flew wide open. “The Rebis!”
“A minion of that foul Light before my very eyes.” The bat-winged creature, appearing as a fiend that was precisely half man, half woman strutted on the field, licking their lips in anticipation. Even the color of their body was perfectly halved, with one side being light, and the other, dark. “How delicious it shall feel to rip you apart with my claws!”
Jaden grinned his usual easy-going grin. “Woah there, how about we have a fun duel first?”
“Shut up! I will rip and tear until there is nothing left! First that worthless lump of flesh in front of us, and then the Light itself!” The mad duel spirit screamed in response, their hair frizzing up as if the creature was shocked with a million volts of electricity, or more likely a million volts of pure, undiluted rage.
Jaden held out his hands and sent a sheepish look toward Sartorius. "Sorry. We're still working on the whole 'anger management' thing. Anyways, like Phil said, you can’t just sit around, waiting for the opponent to drop Yubel for ya’, so here’s my Dark Hole! Nuke that field!”
Just like that, the entire field was emptied of monsters. The Magician, Yubel, every monster was destroyed, sucked into the crushing maw of the gravitational celestial phenomenon.
“Of course,” Jaden held out a finger to stop Sartorius from voicing his confusion, “Yubel has a neat little effect. When this card is destroyed, I can special summon Yubel – The Terror Incarnate (0/0) to my field in attack position! Anyway, that’s the end of my turn.”
Once Jaden’s turn ended, the giant, twin-headed dragon monster visibly pulsed, the large eye in its chest blinking as an invisible wave shot out from its body to scour the field.
“During my end phase, this version of Yubel destroys all other monsters on the field. Which, considering it’s the only monster on the field, really doesn’t matter all that much right now.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sartorius glanced at his graveyard. The Magician was gone, but his opponent’s monster had zero attack points. That obviously meant it had some sort of special effect – and likely another form once he destroyed this second form. As of right now, the monster still felt… incomplete. Like it hadn’t finished evolving. Destruction was no doubt the key to evolution. The question was, how to deal with it? He had to destroy that monster if he wanted to win. But then the evolution…
“The Light shall guide me.” Sartorius concluded. “I draw. Monster card! Time Wizard (500/400) arrives to my field and activates its effect! I will flip a coin and call it. If I call it right, all of your monsters will be destroyed. Wrong, and I lose my own monsters, taking their attack points as damage in the process.”
The silly little clock magician bounced onto the field, its googly eyes moving in synch with the bounces. Then the clock on the end of its staff began to spin its hands, over and over again.
“I call heads.”
Sartorius tossed the coin in the air. Strangely enough, there was a glimmer of concern lodged deep in his heart. He’d already failed one coin toss. Would this be the second?
The coin tumbled to the ground.
Heads.
A beam of purple light was sent screaming out of Time Wizard’s staff to nail Terror Incarnate right in the chest, sending it to the graveyard with a roar of pain.
"Oh, you shouldn't have done that," Jaden smirked. "Yubel doesn't like it when you destroy their forms. And now that the Terror Incarnate is over, check out Yubel – The Ultimate Nightmare (0/0)!”
The creature was back, yet noticeably different. More complete, if Sartorius had to put his finger on the change. Two dragon heads burst out of a scaley winged body, and a downright evil face burst out of its chest with a resplendent beard and a gaze full of hate. Eyes glared not only out of the chest-head, but from the creature’s dragon-like knees.
“You fool! Pain makes me stronger! Death empowers me! There is no escape from fear! No escape from this unending nightmare!” The monster crowed triumphantly. Jaden smiled and fished around in his pockets, producing a chocolate chip cookie that lay flat in his palm.
The movement instantly grabbed the monster’s attention and Jaden threw the dessert into its mouth.
“Such a nice fella.” Jaden sighed, watching the monster relish the treat. “I’ll get ya’ a grilled cheese after this duel as thanks for the assist, you can bet on that!”
Sartorius scowled in annoyance. In the corner of his eyes, he registered the tarot card trembling slightly.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jaden could feel it. The current in the air, the current that signaled that the duel was about to hit its highest point! His various scrapes, burns, and wounds were barely noticeable. He drew a card, and then it all clicked into place.
"Alright, Yubel! Let's bring 'er home! Sartorius, this is it! No more hurting my friends, no more creepy mind control, no more bad things! I activate the signal all true heroes answer, the sign in the sky that spells my victory! Spell card, Hero Flash!!”
As Jaden began to explain what the card did, the letters H, E, R, and O flashed into the sky like a spotlight, bright enough to even overpower the moon itself.
“By banishing H – Heated Heart, E – Emergency Call, R – Righteous Justice, and O – Oversoul from my graveyard, I can special summon one Elemental Hero normal monster from my deck, and then all my normal Elemental Heroes can directly attack this turn. That last bit doesn’t matter much, but the first bit matters a lot! Elemental Hero Sparkman (1600/1400), why don’t you be a bro and back a guy up!”
The light shining down from the moon twisted and squirmed as if it was a living creature desperately writhing its tentacles to prevent Jaden from summoning his monster, but there was nothing it could do. The blue and gold hero, capable of commanding the currents of electricity, flipped into the field to land with a cautious look toward Yubel, who ignored the hero in turn in favor of violently flexing its claws.
“Battle phase.” Jaden’s grin stretched wide across his face like he was the Cheshire Cat who’d learned how to duel and was about to beat the tar out of the Queen of Hearts. “Yubel, why don’t you destroy that Time Wizard?”
Before Jaden could finish speaking, the comical clock wizard was swallowed whole by Yubel – The Ultimate Nightmare, whose effect immediately triggered to deal Time Wizard’s attack points in effect damage now that the monster was destroyed.
"Yubel doesn't have to care about attack points," Jaden explained. "Once they attack, the target gets destroyed via card effect and the effect damage goes through. Speaking of going through, Sparkman…”
Jaden’s eyes flashed with fighting spirit once more, and for once, his voice was filled with volcanic anger. Anger, which was normally a foreign concept to the usually cheerful boy. An anger that was echoed by the horrifying monstrosity in front of him.
“That’s game! FREE MY FRIENDS! ATTACK DIRECTLY!”
The Wheel of Fortune card finally turned. Upright, meaning good luck, destiny found, and a vital turning point reached. Not for Sartorius, but for Jaden Yuki. It pulsed once with a shower of sickly blue light and then fell lifelessly to the ground. No longer did it thrum with magic. It was nothing more than a simple tarot card one might find in a store.
Jaden: 100 Sartorius: 0
Overhead, the sky turned from a pitch-black night to a pure blinding white as Sartorius fell to his knees like a puppet with its strings cut.
The seer finally tasted defeat.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
At the exact same time as when the duel between the champion of Slifer and the seer of the Light began, Phil walked through the door of Banner’s classroom. Alexis did not stop him. No, she had bolted out the door to her brother’s side as soon as the dust cleared. Syrus, too, was absent from his window post. He stood next to Zane, seemingly unsure of what to do next – help his brother, or duel him?
Phil ignored all of that in favor of grinning widely at the three students facing him. In the background, he could see the half-obscured duel between the professors and Banner, but it mattered not.
“Bastion Misawa, Princess Rose, and Chazz Princeton.” Phil looked at each of his opponents one by one, who stared back at him with conflicted expressions on their faces, mixed with obvious horror and concern over his physical condition. Then he turned to Rose. "You, you are something unexpected. I'd have thought your spot would be filled by Alexis or maybe Syrus. But…" Phil put a finger against his chin and took on a mocking tone, “Those two are a wittle bit busy with their dear older brothers~. I wonder what Alexis felt to see Atticus be torn away from her again? And what Syrus felt when Zane, as steady as a mountain in his eyes, fell before my final attack?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Bastion stepped forward and replied with a neutral voice and closed eyes. “I know this isn’t the real you, Phil. You can’t get a rise out of us. Those disgusting words are nothing but the Light talking.” Bastion’s eyes snapped open, and he gestured toward Rose and Chazz, who stepped forward and activated their duel disks. "Sorry, Phil! I know it puts you at a disadvantage, but I'll have to insist that you duel all three of us at once! It's the least you could do, considering you have cards not of this world! Chazz, Rose, just like we discussed! We cannot allow even a single opening for him to exploit!”
“Of course, Sir Bastion.” Rose gently looked at Phil all the while. “Sir Phil, the bond between knight and princess goes both ways! When a princess is in danger, the knight answers the call! When the battle-worn knight is brought low by fiendish magic, the princess restores his mind! Allow this princess to do her sworn duty!”
“Yeah, yeah.” Chazz dismissively waved his hand. “I got pulled in from the front lines to deal with the top nerd himself. Let’s get this over with so I can get back in the action. Besides, I almost got used to hearing you yammering in the background with some stupid pun or another, so if I have to put the hurt on you to keep the gang together, then that’s what I’ll do!”
Phil: 4000 Bastion, Rose, and Chazz: 4000