Aniki was ecstatic. Of course he was, someone actually came up to him and challenged him to a duel! A duel! In the middle of the street! Sure, he’d seen people dueling earlier today, but that was different, this was happening to him.
Aniki took the brief moment it took to set up the duel gazers to check out his opponent. A kid, probably about thirteen or fourteen, with the only reasonable haircut he’d seen all day. Of course, it was still weird, the kid was about as close as you could get to having frosted tips on an afro, but it wasn’t spiky or curved in a way that told you physics was sleeping when the hairdo convention rolled around. The kid was chubby but honestly looked like he could be a middle school bully rather than just being unhealthy. Probably put on those extra pounds to look more intimidating.
It was during that thought that the duel gazers synched, and Aniki’s duel disk snapped, unfolding into the larger form that actually let him play. He hoped his mask of friendly competitiveness was holding because Aniki was rather close to squealing in excitement. His opponent looked a little rattled, but that was fine. Looking up, two counters were shown, reading:
[Jewels: 4000 / Aniki: 4000] 4000 LP then. That tracked with the rest of the anime.
Apparently, the kid was trying to get Aniki on the back foot, as he quickly spoke. “I’ll take the first turn!” Aniki was more than happy to let him. It’d give him time to look at his hand… which wasn’t great. No Megarock, huh? Well, that was the problem with playing a nigh unsearchable beatstick as your ace. Aniki realized the kid was waiting for an affirmation, and nodded, trying to see what the kid was playing at.
The kid was quick to get a look at his hand. The face that stared at those cards was one Aniki had seen many times in older format duels, and even more often at locals. The kid's face said that he bricked, and pretty hard. That, or he was really trying to throw Aniki off. Maybe both, if Aniki could bluff, so could… Jewels. Odd name, but hey, he couldn’t really talk.
After a moment, the kid finally broke the silence. “I’ll normal summon Gem-Knight Garnet [1900/0] and then set a card. That’s the end of my turn.”
As an orange-red knight pulled himself out of the concrete, and a card appeared floating behind him, Aniki was very close to opening his mouth in shock. It turns out that the kid actually did brick that hard, though… No, he was looking somewhat smug. The kid actually thought normal-ing a 1900 beatstick and setting one was a good first turn. Looking at his hand… Aniki almost felt sorry. Almost.
“I’ll normal summon Doki Doki [500/500] in attack, then use its effect, discarding Gogogo Golem [1800/1500] for a second copy to be special summoned in attack mode. Then, I’ll activate the effect of Cartorhyn the Hidden Gem of the Seafront [500/1600] in my hand to send it to grave for a second normal summon. I’ll use that second normal summon on Gate Blocker [100/2000] in attack mode, though it won’t stick around for long. I’ll overlay Gate Blocker and Gogogo Golem for Gallant Granite [2300/1800]!”
Many things happened on the field. A pot, filled with a dark miasma dropped onto the field, and a tendril shot out from it, taking the Gogogo Golem from Aniki’s hand and depositing it in his graveyard. At the same time, another tendril from the pot flew to his deck and grabbed a Gogogo Golem, which was deposited safely onto the field, the bulbous golem shuddering at the pot’s touch. A small, blue and yellow lizard flew from Aniki’s hand into the graveyard, letting a massive wall with an eye in the center hitch a ride to the field as it did. Then, as the XYZ summon was declared, a swirling red vortex was formed, sucking in both Gate Blocker and Gogogo Golem, and transforming both into pure energy. A samurai, formed entirely from stone stepped out of the portal, having already drawn both of his swords, as two balls of light representing his two overlay units swirled around him.
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Aniki was very close to going for his second XYZ, but Jewels looked like he’d seen a ghost. It was then that Aniki remembered that only pro duelists with the largest of brains could actually play anything resembling a half-decent deck in the anime-verse, and that little combo there was probably pushing that pretty hard. Shrugging, he decided to just hit his facedown and see what happens. Either Jewels was playing mirror force, or he wasn’t, though knowing Aniki’s luck, he probably was.
“I’ll go to battle phase, and attack your Gem-Knight Garnet with Gallant Granite!” Aniki punctuated his attack with a point, because there was nothing cooler in the anime than watching the main character point, and he was going to do it too!
Gallant Granite moved fast, slicing through the less powerful Gem-Knight in a single slash from his stone swords, and reducing Jewels’ life points by 400 points.
[Jewels: 3600 / Aniki: 4000]
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Jewels was panicking. Who was this guy?! Sure, he’d seen Shark get past Garnet in his first turn, but even he looked like it took a bit of effort! This guy, Aniki, just blew past him like it was easy! He was so distracted that he barely even registered the direct attack with Doki Doki, reducing his life points by another 500.
[Jewels: 3100 / Aniki: 4000]
How was he gonna get out of this? He didn’t have any XYZ monsters to summon, and even if he did, it’d be impossible to get two monsters on the field with Aniki’s Gallant Granite. All he could do was stall and hope he drew his Gem-Merchant to beat over it. So, he drew. Giant Soldier of Stone [1300/2000]. Not what he needed, but it would buy him another turn without being hit by Gallant Granite.
“I’ll play a monster in face-down defense position, and end my turn!”
As he declared that, the smile on his opponent shook a little. Was he laughing? No one got away with laughing at Jewels! No one but… well, Shark laughed with Jewels, but he was stronger! He had the right to laugh…
Whatever, right now wasn’t the time for Jewels to be thinking about this. He ran over what he could do in his head. He had a Gem-Enhancement face-down, and a Giant Soldier of Stone in defense, though his opponent probably didn’t know that. So long as his opponent didn’t get out another XYZ this turn, it was possible to turn this around… he just had to hope he drew well.
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Aniki was struggling to keep his smile up. Honestly, he just felt bad for the kid. He didn’t want to sandbag too hard, that felt disingenuous, but at the same time, even just playing Megarock would probably crush the kid’s hopes and dreams right there. After a moment, Aniki shrugged. Jewels wanted a duel, and he wasn’t gonna hold his hand through the whole thing. It was time to actually play the game.
“I’ll draw… Right, I’ll normal summon Card Trooper [400/400] in attack position, and activate its effect to discard three cards from my deck, increasing its attack by 500 for each.”
If Jewels’ face turning sheet white was any indication, he knew what was about to happen.
A little robot wheeled itself out from nowhere, pointing one of its arms at Aniki’s deck, sucking three cards into the graveyard as it began to glow a bit brighter. Aniki checked his graveyard, and he saw seven rock monsters, plus a copy of Needlebug Nest. That’ll do.
Nodding, he pointed once more. “I’ll then activate the effect of Gallant Granite, sending an overlay unit to the graveyard to add one rock monster of my choice from my deck to my hand. In this case, Megarock Dragon [?/?]!”
Gallant Granite moved one of his swords and slashed one of the overlay units in half. The mote of light traveled down into Aniki’s deck, revealing a Megarock Dragon poking out, which he took. That was eight. 5600 attack points.
“I’ll special summon Megarock Dragon, banishing all eight of the rock monsters in my graveyard to do so. For each one, Megarock dragon gets an extra 700 attack and defense points!”
The virtual ground shook as eight cards were sent to Aniki’s banished zone from his graveyard, and the ground split to reveal a massive rock dragon, covered in spikes and formed from the materials of the different monsters used to summon it.
“I’ll go to battle phase, and attack your face-down monster with Gallant Granite.”
The stone samurai, ever stoic, slashed the card to reveal a Giant Soldier of Stone, splitting it in half.
“I’ll attack you directly with Megarock Dragon, for game.”
At Aniki’s declaration, the massive rock dragon simply raised a stone foot and slammed it down, causing Jewels to lose all of his remaining life points.
[Jewels: 0 / Aniki: 4000]