17 Special Class Tournament Arc: 1st Part

"Hm? A tournament?" She asked absentmindedly, to which Serena nodded her head. Hmm, she's pretty sure this kind of exchange has happened once before, but wasn't it with Mei? She couldn't really remember.

Serena nodded, confirming that she had heard her correctly. "Un, a tournament. It's one that Academia would yearly do at the end of the year. It's one where every class sends two of their representatives."

She raised an eyebrow at the indigo haired girl's explanation, though she still was not looking away from the organized mess that was her trying to build a deck. "Two representatives? Not just one for each class then?"

The indigo haired girl shook her head in response. "No. The format of the tournament is a tag duel. So each class would send two representatives for the tag duel." The girl said as she raised an eyebrow and crossed her hand, and she looked over her shoulder.

"You're deck building again? Which deck are you tinkering with now?" She asked as she saw what exactly she was doing at her desk.

She gathered the cards that were on the table and shuffled them, drawing five cards from the top of the deck to see what test hand she could get with a skill that was placed on the deck's Boss Monster. "Yep. Although I don't know if I'll be playing this deck anytime soon."

"Eeh~ Really? Let me see, let me see~" A certain someone said as he tried to look over her shoulder to see as well, also pushing Serena away as he did so.

"Hey! Don't push!" The girl complained as she tried to push away the boy in question. "Why are you even here, Yuri!? This is the girls' dorm! Why are you even allowed to be in here!" The girl shouted.

"Eeh~ Why not?" The purple haired boy whined with a smile in fis face as he kept pushing back and forth with the indigo haired girl who had a perpetual scowl on her face. "I mean, everyone is already here after all. So I thought 'might as well' and went here!"

"More like you sneaked into here." The violet haired girl who was lounging in her bed commented as she read a book, not joining in on the other two who were still continuing their struggle.

"Again? And no one stopped you? And I thought this place had some actual good security." She grumbled as she shuffled the deck once more, and then swiveled her chair to face the pair of purple haired boy and girl who were stuck in their struggle.

"Anyway, I could kind of guess what Serena is here for, but really, can you give me the actual reason why you're here, Yuri?" She asked as she massaged her head, already sure that the boy was going to bring something troublesome, like everything else that he had for the last few months.

It was nearing the end of the semester, already a few months had passed since the Fusion Dimension's Yu-Boy, along with the others, had transferred to their class, and he had brought an incredible amount of problems to her doorstep.

From basically being another person other than Serena that kept hounding her for duels, the boy would, just as he just admitted, would break into the girl's dorm to do so, something that was worse than Serena barging into her room.

The boy had no sense of privacy, at least he never actually barged in when she was changing, Serena however, had done so multiple times, and though she had thrown multiple pillows right at her face multiple times, it seems like the girl had no sense of shame whatsoever.

She gets that they were both girls, but it was still embarrassing alright! And that's not mentioning that she was basically an adult mentally, and having a kid around Serena's age see her in her birthday suit and not react at all was something that dealt much more mental damage than being stuck in an infinite loop of watching worlds being created and destroyed.

It just hits different you know?

"Hmm? Eeeh~ did you forget Yuuna? You said that you were going to help me with my deck today." Yuri answered her question, and then he pouted. "Did you really forget that, how cruel of you. Even though you promised."

"Aah, I guess I did." She said as she scratched the back of her head and let out a sigh. Now that he said that, she did remember that she promised to help out with his deck, though at this point it was a promise that she threw out to everyone in her friend group.

She offered the same to Edo, Fubuki, and Ryo, but the three of them said that as a duelist, they should be the one who are responsible for their own decks, though she does give them pointers and help here and there.

At least the twins listened to her suggestion of playing Amazoness Onslaught. The two of them are quite the force to be reckoned with now. At least to those that don't run backrow removal, and backrow removal that doesn't destroy if Amazoness Empress was on board.

They got some nice amounts of wins under their belts after they added the card to their deck. Grace even managed to win against Yuri a couple of times, mostly because the boy hadn't run any backrow removal cards.

Although the fact that the boy ran an incredible amount of anime only cards kind of explains why he wouldn't see the need to run backrow removal cards, some of them are just plain broken, and or stupid.

For instance, the continuous spell Destruction Flower, burns the opponent when he special summons, if he has a monster with a different attack stat than its original attack, and then burns for the amount of difference and also reduces the attack of an opponents monster by the same amount.

Is it complicated and wordy? Yes. Does it have an unnecessarily complicated effect? Also yes.

And that's not even mentioning it's activation condition of having to send one other face-up continuous spell card, and it having a maintenance cost of sending another continuous spell or taking 1000 points of damage! It's a genuinely bad card!

He argues that it could see niche play when he summons Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, which can increase its attack when it's summoned equal to the attack of one of the opponent's special summoned monster, but then you'll still need to have a continuous spell already on board to activate it, then need to special summon, and pay the maintenance cost.

And that's not even mentioning that it's a dead card turn one. Even if the boy plays a go second deck. And he plays another card with basically the same laughable activation condition and a worse maintenance cost, and it doesn't even help him OTK!

Ah, right, that was why she planned to give the boy help in deck building. A lot of cards in his deck sucks. But there was one random card that was basically overpowered to the point that it was a no-brainer that it was an anime card that was never printed.

"Ah, yep, totally remember now." She answered with a monotone voice and a blank face. "First thing first, ditch those Destruction Flowers and Destruction Fruits, those cards have no synergy whatsoever with your deck."

"Eeh~ Why should I though?" The boy complained as he plopped down on her bed, earning a glare from Mei who now has less space. Umm, there's a whole other bed on the other side of the room you know? And Mei, why aren't you lazing around in your own bed! Mine would get stuff and crumpled up now!

"As I said, it doesn't have any synergy with your deck whatsoever." She said once more, turning her chair to face the desk and spreading her own pool of cards to mess around with the card ratio.

"It has an activation condition that's unreliable, a maintenance cost that inherently minuses you, and that's not even mentioning the fact that while their effects aren't a once per turn, they suck." She bluntly said the card's weakness to the purple haired boy.

"Their maintenance costs?" The boy asked, titling his head slightly and pressing a hand to his cheek.

"The clause where you have to send one continuous spell you control or take damage." Mei grumbled as she kicked the boy in the back, earning a yelp and making him fall off of her bed.

The boy glared at her, and she gave him a smug smile before returning her attention to the book in her hands. He grumbled out something that she couldn't exactly hear, and huffed. "Well, I haven't ever had a problem with it though. I've always had the things that I needed to pay for, what did you call it? Maintenance costs after all."

"Ah, right, I forgot that you were basically an anime antagonist that can Destiny Draw any card you want." She mumbled under her breath just low enough so that none of them could hear as she massaged her temple and sighed.

She immediately purchased a box worth of Predator Plants Pack, she was quite thankful that the cards that she wanted were in low rarity, that and the fact that the pack itself was locked only to a single archetype.

She placed her hand in her jacket's pocket, and took out the cards that she had purchased from her inventory. "Here, replace them with these." She said as she gave the cards out to the purple haired boy.

"Hmm?" He took them from her hands and inspected the two spell cards that she had given multiples of to him. "These are..."

"I'm pretty sure your deck has a tribal fusion spell, but it seems that I haven't been able to find them." Or more like she hasn't even been able to pull them. At least she got three copies each of Predaplast and Predapractice, she'll leave the ratio to the boy himself to decide.

"Now cough up some DP." She said as she stretched a hand towards the boy, a universal gesture that she was asking the boy for money. The boy in question blinked his eyes and looked at her weirdly.

The boy then placed a hand over his heart, faking being hurt. "You're charging me? Yuuna, I thought we were friends!" the boy said dramatically, to which she responded with a deadpan stare.

Seeing that she gave no response, the purple haired boy turned towards the other girls that were in the room to try and see if he could elicit a response from them. Mei continued to ignore him, faking interest in the book in her hand, while Serena was still simply glued to her side, also ignoring the purple haired boy.

The boy blew a raspberry and pouted. "You're all no fun." He said as he placed his hands on his duel disk. "Well, fine. How much is it?" Seeing that the boy was actually willing to pay for them, she was suddenly put on the spot to decide on the price.

Never thought that she would actually get this far if she was being honest. "Uhm, let's see." She mumbled as she placed a hand on her chin and thought of a price that wasn't too pricey enough to be a scam, but enough that it would give her some profit.

Well, she knew that the boy had a lot of DP saved up from his beating any of those who challenged him, with the exception of their circle of friends since they usually traded wins and losses, but she was a good adult, so she wasn't going to be doing anything like that though. Lets see, a normal pack costs around 150 DP, and the card wasn't really that splashable in other decks, not to mention that one of them xeno locks you to Fusion Summoning.

"I'll sell each card for 200 DP." She said, informing the purple eyed boy of the price of the cards that she was selling to him.

"200DP? That's pretty cheap isn't it." The boy said as he pressed a few buttons in his duel disk, and a ping sound emanated from her duel disk, a notification signal. She took a look at it to find that the boy in front of her had performed the transaction.

"Ou, thanks for the purchase." She said as she spun her chair back and focused back on the deck in her hands.

"Eeh, you're not going to help me construct my deck Yuuna?" The boy whined, to which she responded by giving him a raised eyebrow.

"I do have other things to do, you know. Like building my own deck and the matter that Serena was going to bring up before you rudely interrupted her." She said painting to the indigo haired girl by her side who was glaring at him.

"That and experience has taught me that boys don't seem to like it when others give them a hand in their deck building process." She said as she remembered the matter with the other boys of their group.

Yuri merely shrugged his shoulders in response. "Well alright then, I guess I'll just spend some time here then." The boy then sprawled himself on the floor and spread his deck of cards, proceeding to do the same thing that she was doing, in her room, in the girls dorm.

The boy truly has no sense of privacy, nor any sense of self preservation now that she thought about it. Well, it's not like the dorm mother would suddenly barge into her room anyway. The fact that Serena kept barging in every day probably desensitized her of commotions that came specifically from her room.

She let out a sigh, knowing that the boy probably won't get out of her room anytime soon, and turned towards Serena. "So, you were talking about the… tag tournament?" She asked the indigo haired girl.

The girl blinked, and coughed in her fist and answered. "Right. Yuuna, I want to be your partner for the Academia Tag Duel Tournament." The indigo haired girl declared, and she could hear the two heads of the other occupants of the room instantly snap to look at the girl in question.

"No!" Mei shouted as she rose from the bed. "I'll be Yuuna's partner for the tag duel!" She declared, jumping up from her bed to glue herself to her arm, refusing to part even after she tried to pry her off.

"Ah, in that case I want to be Yuuna's partner!" Yuri said, standing up from his seating position and beam towards her. "If we were to duel together then no one should be able to defeat us!"

The boy's smile then turned ever so slightly, just enough for it to become warped and unnerving. "With that we could most certainly go and face all those Obelisk Blues and the other classes right? And then we could most certainly defeat them, couldn't we?"

U-uwaah, that's a bit over the top, but then again those Obelisk Blues have been bothering him instead of her recently, so it was kind of understandable why he had some pent up rage aimed at them, even if he kept beating them whenever they challenged him.

"Hmm..." She hummed, leaning back on her chair, thinking of the offers that the three of them gave to her deeply. Out of the three of them, only Mei was playing a deck that can go first or second and can make a board that can interact with the opponent, Serena can make a monster that is untargetable and indestructible by card effects, Yuri however, with his current deck, could make Starving Venom or Chimerafflesia.

That or set up that incredibly broken, one sided Skill Drain, Imperial Order, Royal Decree, Swords of Revealing Light, and a once per turn Secret Barrel for monsters that burns for 800, all with the measly maintenance cost of tributing a Predaplant monster during the Standby Phase.

It was an incredibly dumb, mind numbingly boring card. The only feasible cards that she thinks of this incredibly broken card was the graveyard effect of Galaxy Cyclone and Fossil Machine Skull Wagon, that or chaining removal when it's activated, or negating its activation.

Most of which, needs an established board to do, which basically meant that if the purple haired boy opened the dang card as he went first, it was an incredibly annoying card that was feasibly impossible to out unless you have removal.

Yep, it was no wonder that Ivy Bind Castle was never printed. And boy was she glad that the purple haired boy only had one copy of that card, and being honest she would be glad if he actually had none at all, it was Mystic Mine on crack! Though at least it wasn't searchable and had support cards for it like with Terraforming or Metaverse.

At least there was some good in this world.

"Each class is only allowed to send in a single pair as a representative huh." She said, ignoring all the bickering trio. "Then the class itself was probably going to be holding their own small tag tournament to decide their representative."

Serena, who seemed to have heard her own musing, responded to her. "That seems to be something that's going to happen." She said as she continued to glare at the two other purple haired duelists in the room.

"Which means that even if you don't partner up with me then there's the possibility that we could face each other then." She summarized. Well it was a tournament after all, of course everyone in this room, who were dueling nuts, would want to join in, especially when their opponents would be people around their own level.

She could already see the duelists in their class that would possibly make it into the preliminaries, along with who their partners might possibly be.

The twins were quite above the others in their class, and of course, them being twins will probably be parenting with one another. Fubuki would probably partner up with Ryo, although there was a chance that any of the two of them could also partner up with Edo.

Which probably leaves the four of them, whoever she doesn't partner up with would probably partner up with each other, and she could all but guarantee that they all would probably make it past the preliminaries.

Ahh, and it also brought on her the problem of which deck she would probably bring. There's no doubt that some of the others would probably already have some cards that are counters to her decks, most of which she has shown to be dragon based.

Although probably not the people of her classes at least. They would probably run cards that can out her board, but they definitely would not base an entire deck based on countering her playstyle.

Not like any of them are the kind to play an entire Buster Blader deck to counter her dragon based decks anyway, that would require too much commitment on their part. And unlike her and Mei, the others like to stick to their own decks and archetypes.

But if she does make it to the finals where she could possibly face the Obelisk Blues, Ra Yellows, and Osiris Reds, then the possibility of them doing something as idiotic as building an entire deck focused on beating her's in not at all improbable.

"When is the class tournament going to be held probably?" She asked, if she had a rough timeline of when the tournament would take place then she could probably form a deck that could probably stand that incredibly specific hate. Or maybe she could just play some of the decks that she had used, just revamped using some other cards that she currently had.

"The tournament is going to be held at the end of the month, and each class is told to pick their representatives a week before that, so the class tournament is probably going to be held at the end of this week." Serena said to her, already stopping their bickering.

"Uwaah, it would have been better if you had informed me like a month earlier so that I could have prepared myself better you know." She told the indigo haired girl, who only huffed in response.

"Isn't it your fault for not paying attention to the events around you? I've heard it from Mei, but if she wasn't there you might not have even been in this Academia you know." Serena said as she glared at her.

She could only look away with embarrassment as she rubbed the back of her head. "Well… I guess you're right." She has been a bit too busy messing with her deck, preparing for when she would inevitably defect and try to sabotage the invasion and all, she hadn't really been socializing much, if not at all.

Well, when almost everyone in a whole private school avoided her, it was kind of hard for her to socialize outside of her own circle of friends. That and the fact that she pretty much did not know any of the yearly events in this world also hindered her from knowing that there were yearly tournaments and the likes.

Yikes, she really needed to do more research about upcoming events, especially ones that are about tournaments and the like.

"Well, who are you going to partner up with Yuuna?" Mei asked her, looking up towards her with glittering eyes filled with expectations. "It's me right? You're going to be parenting with me right? We could definitely get the number one spot if we partner up with each other!"

"I don't think that that's a good idea Mei." She said with a strained smile, and saw the violet haired girl's eyes go as wide as dinner plates, and she saw her become as pale as white marble, the blood all drained out of her face.

Before the girl could whine or argue, she raised a hand and continued. "It's just that I don't think that your current deck and mine synergizes very well with each other." She explained. "Your ABC's needs a free board to completely pop off, their graveyard effects only activate if they're sent from the field to the graveyard. My Dragonmaids would clog up the board too much for you to use."

The violet haired girl let out a long whine, and was shoved away by Serena who stared at her directly with a determined look. "Then you'll partner up with me right! If you're planning to bring your Dragonmaids to the tournament, then my Lunalights ability to quickly defeat the opponents can easily win us the game!"

"If it's like that, then my own Predaplants can do it too." Yuri contested, arguing the same points as the indigo haired girl. The two then glared at each other, the indigo haired girl having a large scowl on her face while the purple haired girl had a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

While the two had their silent showdown, Mei had dragged herself to her side once more, and looked up towards her with sad looking eyes. "Nee… Yuuna… Won't you change your deck for the tournament? Or if not, I'll change my own deck so that it can fit with yours!"

"I guess that's also something that I could do." She said as she caressed her chin. "But if anything, I'm probably going to be changing decks if I actually manage to make it to the actual tournament."

"Well, if it's you then there's already a high chance of that happening." Serena said with a huff. Ah, did Serena have that much trust in her ability as a duelist to make it to the actual tournament? She's a bit embarrassed that she has that much trust in her if she was being honest…

"After all you had the highest grades in our class don't you? Along with your win and loss records being what they are, you got seeded right?" The indigo haired girl said, to which she responded by blinking dumbly while pointing at herself.

"Eh? I got seeded?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"Huh?! You don't remember!?" The girl shouted right at her face, making her cover both of her ears. "The teacher said so in class just yesterday! And didn't you have a meeting with him the same day talking about that! Did you really forget about that!?"

"Ah, rather than forgetting I pretty much don't listen to what the teacher says in the first place." She said with a wry smile, avoiding making eye contact with the seething indigo haired girl.

Truth to be told, she respected the teacher, she really did. It's just that the materials that he taught them were all things that she had already learnt years ago and remembers outside of her head. That and she probably knows more about the game than he does.

Like, she knows and can recite all five parts of the Battle Phase and what cards are allowed to activate during those five parts respectively. And judging by the material that they taught those Obelisk Blues, and the things that the teacher was teaching them know, she doubts that they would get that in depth into the game's ruling.

The girl let out a frustrated sigh as she held her head in her head. "You're really unbelievable." She said, before shaking her head and turning to look towards the two others who were looking at her strangely as well.

Seeing that she leaned back on her chair. "I see. So they actually implemented a seed system for what was basically the preliminaries huh." She blinked her eyes a few times as a thought passed her head, and sat up straight to look at the knowledgeable indigo haired girl.

"Doesn't that mean that whoever partnered up with me would also be instantly seeded?" She asked, pointing at herself, to which Serena answered with a nod of her head. She placed a hand on her chin, closing her eyes and falling into deep thought.

"Alright, I decided!" She declared suddenly, making all three others who were in the room, turn their heads towards her.

"You've decided on your partner for the tag duel tournament?" Mei asked in a low voice with both of her hands clasped together. "If you want I can change my deck! I can change mine into a different one that could synergize well with your deck!"

She chuckled a bit at the violet haired girl's reaction, and shook her head. "Mei, you know that the only deck that you have that's playable would be your ABC and Machina Ancient Gears, the latter of which you haven't played recently." She said.

"Even if you were to make and play a whole new deck, just a single week wouldn't be enough for you to completely master a whole new deck. Even the smallest misplays could be lethal after all." She lectured the girl.

Mei looked downcast at that, and she let out a sigh and patted her head in hopes that it would lift her spirits a little bit. She then turned to look at the two other duelists in the room, the two other possible tag partner in the tournament.

"I'm going to go with Yuri." She said, and the indigo haired girl let out a frustrated sigh, while in contrast the purple haired boy smiled, wide enough to reach his eyes.

Serena looked displeased at her decision, but that was understandable. She at least has some reason as to why she chose him over her and Mei. "As much as I do want to partner up with you or Mei, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one that Yuri is comfortable dueling with instead of against."

And wasn't that true. The purple haired boy, even months after his transfer here, still does not have much connection to others, basically the same thing that happens to her because he too, was avoided by the crowds and others.

That's mostly because like her, and a lot of her little group, the purple eyed boy could easily wipe the floor with an incredible ease against others in their class, including Obelisk Blues who were said to be stronger than them.

The boy had eased over the months with the others yes, but even if slightly the boy was still twitchy when he was around Serena, as if he doesn't actually know how to deal with her, and while he could be said to be friends with the others, he's always kept them at arm's length.

A stark difference from some of the others in her circle of friends, as Fubuki was a people person, Edo as well was quite good at making connections, and while Ryo was what one would deem as the silent type, he too likes to socialize with others.

But he at least has loosened up to her, though that was probably because the purple haired boy hasn't beaten her in a serious duel yet, though unlike Haru, the boy took his defeat gracefully, that and he always learnt from his mistakes and would also he eats up her suggestions and teachings like Mei.

"Besides, I'm sure that he still has to finish his deck building first, and since I apparently promised to help him, I might as well do it." She said with a sigh as she stood up from the seat and dusted herself off.

Serena let out a sigh at her decision, and turned towards Mei. "Guess it can't be helped." The girl said before walking towards the violet haired girl, and grabbed her by the collar. She then turned to look towards her, looking at her right in the eye.

"Since you already made your decision then I'm going with Mei. We'll definitely make it into the finals, so prepare yourself, Yuuna!" She shouted as she pointed towards her. The girl then turned towards Yuri, who still had that smug smile on his face.

"You better not hinder her! If you don't do your best, we'll definitely beat you!" The girl said as she glared at the purple haired boy, Mei too, who was only sitting because she was being dragged by Serena, did the same.

"Yeah! If you don't do your best when we finally face you then we'll beat you up!" The small violet haired girl said angrily as she was dragged out of the room, leaving her and Yuri to be the only occupants of her room.

She turned to look at the smiling purple haired boy. "Well then, we have around a week, so we're going to be revamping your whole deck completely." She gave him a smile of her own, and she saw that the smile of the boy faltered just a little bit.

"We're going to be having, so~ much fun with this." She said as she began to think of the many kinds of ways that she could exploit the cards in the purple haired boy's deck. Oh, she was most definitely going to be having fun with this.

-

"Then I'll be explaining the rules of the tournament." The teacher said, looking over all the participants, consisting of the students in their class who had the highest grades, and the highest win loss rate.

Just as she had predicted, everyone in her circle of friends were the ones that were chosen to duel in the class tournament. Serena was standing next to Mei, Fubuki was leaning next to Ryo with a hand on his shoulder, the twins were standing with one another, while Edo's own partner was the boy with the bowl-cut head that was Mamoru.

Huh, now that she thinks about it, she never had actually watched him duel. She wonders what deck he plays.

"The duel will go like normal. Each team will share Life Points, 8000 points for each duo, and they will both share the field." The teacher said, explaining the rules of tag dueling. So it was just like the tag dueling rules like the one back in her original world, neat.

The people who were sitting around the stadium, the colosseum, whatever you want to call what was basically this glorified dueling amphitheater, started whispering to themselves, still not used to the rules of tag dueling. "Now for the first match!" The teacher declared, and the large screen above them randomized the four team names, shuffling the bracket.

The screen then stopped randomizing, and the bracket was then decided. She could find her own name alongside Yuri's on a top of the bracket, their opponent being the ones who would be making it to the finals of this preliminary tournament.

Her eyes then went down as the crowd started to cheer, and she saw the names of the two pairs of duelists who would be dueling in the first round of this class tournament.

"Hee~ So Mei and Serena are going to be dueling in the first match huh. And against Edo and that other one." Yuri said beside her, as she saw the two girls walk onto the platform, and just as he said, Edo and Mamoru walked onto the opposite side of the heightened platform.

"Yo! You saved us all some free seats huh!" She turned to see the source of the overfamiliar voice, to find that the two pairs of duelists who weren't currently dueling in the tournament had walked over to where they were sitting, the one who called for her being none other than Fubuki.

"Well yeah, I don't remember there being a special waiting room in this place, so I saved up a spot for everyone." She said with a smile, and the others took their seat. They then overlooked the duel between the four duelists in the center of the colosseum, each and everyone of them activating their duel disk and prepared for their match.

""DUEL!""

Noro Mamoru & Edo Phoenix: 8000LP

Mei & Serena: 8000LP

"I will be going first!" The bowl cut boy declared as he took the first turn of the match, and revealed a card from his hand to activate. "I'll activate the field spell, Geartwon from my hand!"

The boy placed the field spell on his duel disk, and the area inside the colosseum turned into the familiar scene of a city of gears and metal. Ah, so he was playing Ancient Gears huh, well, when in Rome and all. "And now I'll activate the spell, Ancient Gear Catapult!" The brown haired boy said, the metallic catapult tank appearing in his side of the field.

"This card can be activated while I control no monsters! It lets me target one face-up card I control and destroy it! If I do, I can special summon one 'Ancient Gear' monster from my deck ignoring its summoning conditions!" The boy explained the card's effects and pointed towards the only other face-up card on his field.

"I'll target Gear Town, and destroy it to special summon Ancient Gear Golem in attack position!" The brown bowl cut boy's decided on his targets, and the gear based city was destroyed, and the mechanical giant of gears and metal, the archetype's own cover card appeared on his field.

Ancient Gear Golem - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 3000/3000

"Gear Town's effect! When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one 'Ancient Gear' monster from my hand, deck, or graveyard!" The brown haired boy then took a card from his deck and showed his summon target.

"I'll special summon Ancient Gear Wyvern in attack position!" He placed the card on his duel disk, and with a mechanical screech, the metallic wyvern of gears flew onto the brown haired boy's side of the field.

Ancient Gear Wyvern - Earth/Machine/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

"And with Ancient Gear Wyvern's effect, I will add Ancient Gear Box! And with Box's effect, I will add Ancient Gear Gadget!" The boy said as he activates the chain of effects, essentially adding two cards from his hands and plusing two in card advantage.

"And now I'll activate Polymerization! I'll fuse Ancient Gear Box and Ancient Gear Gadget in my hand, Ancient Gear Golem and Ancient Gear Wyvern in my field!" The boy declared as he activated the spell card and raised his hands, the four monsters on his designation too being lifted towards the spiral of blue and orange.

"O ancient giant! Wyvern of the heights! Along with spirits residing in mechanical machineries, become one now and show your great powers!" The boy intertwined his fingers together and brought it down to complete the fusion chant.

"Fusion Summon! Appear! Chaos Ancient Gear Golem!" The mechanical monster then appeared on the field, letting out a loud mechanical roar as it did so, both of its arms spread apart as it stood menacingly, towering over his opponents.

Chaos Ancient Gear Giant - Dark/Machine/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 4500/3000

"N-no way! To summon Chaos Ancient gear Giant in the first turn!"

"Amazing! I didn;t think that that upstuck Mamoru could do something like that!"

She let out a hum as she rested her chin on her hand. That certainly wasn't a bad move, somewhat at least. If it was in the first turn it probably would have been better if he had summoned Ancient Gear Howitzer since it was a Towers, because then it would need the Battle Phase to out the monster.

Not that she was supporting Howitzer pass, it's just that this was most definitely not the optimal play on the first turn, especially against someone like Mei who plays monster based removal, the one glaring weakness that Chaos Ancient Gear Giant has.

Not to mention that the boy was now left with three cards in hand, and was locked from setting cards too since he had activated Wyvern's searching effect. What was his plan to do right after this she wondered?

"Now I'll activate the spell card, Terraforming!" The boy said activating the field spell searcher, a play that made her narrow her eyes as she thought of exactly what kind of field spell would he even be searching in his position.

"This allows me to add one field spell from my deck to my hand, and the one that I will add to my hand is Clock Tower Prison!" The boy said as he declared his target and added it to his hand. "And I'll activate it!"

The boy activated his second field spell of the duel, and behind them, a large clock tower appeared, and the colosseum was then shrouded in a misty blanket of darkness. What. "What." She accidentally said her thoughts out loud as she was left to have her mouth open as she saw the absurdity that had just happened.

"What's wrong Yuuna?" The purple haired boy beside her asked, his eyes having a tint of worry in them, and his usual smug smile being slightly less wide than usual. "Is that card something that's strong?"

"Yeah, it's unusual to see you act up like that." Fubuki said with a worried tone as he eyed her, but without losing his focus on the main duelists dueling in the center of the colosseum. The others too were turning to look towards her worriedly.

She blushed a bit at all their attention, and coughed into her fist to try and calm herself down. "N-no it's alright. I-I'm just worried at the choice of card that he decided to use. Even if it does have some synergy with Edo's Destiny HERO, it's just a bit..."

"Eh, so you know what that card does- you know I shouldn't be surprised at this point." Fubuki said with a strained smile as he shook his head. "So, what exactly does the card do then?"

"Huh? Oh right, Clock Tower Prison is… a card alright." She started the card's explanation, pulling the card up in her own System so that she won't actually be wrong in explaining the card's effect text.

"It's a counter based field spell, once every opponent's turn it gains a counter. And while it has four counters on it, the controller doesn't take any battle damage." She explained the card's base effect.

"If it was destroyed and sent to the graveyard while it had 4 or more counters, then you could special summon Destiny HERO Dreadmaster from the hand or deck." She continued the card's explanation, that of which being an incredibly bad card.

"That's… a bit slow." Yuri commented, clearly having learnt a lot during their one on one training the last few days when they basically completely revamped his own deck, and having to play against her and her own variety of decks which was still in progress.

"Yeah, it most definitely is. There's a card that can increase that specific counter count, but again, it's an incredibly slow strategy. But this is a bad matchup for that, after all, it's one that Mei can easily circumvent with her own cards." She said as she leaned back on her seat.

"Ah! It's because Mei-chan's ABC-Dragon Buster banishes instead of destroying right!" Grace said excitedly, figuring out exactly why she thought that this matchup was a bad one. She nodded her head in confirmation, and the silver haired girl's smile widened at being correct.

"That and the fact that Serena's own deck is one that specializes on closing games quickly, and she also has non destruction removal of spells and traps that could be used on Clock Tower Prison." She explained further the reasoning as to why she thought that this was a bad matchup.

"Hmm, that's certainly something that would throw a wrench in their plans." Gloria commented as she crossed her arms, and they all fell into silence once more as they focused back on the duel.

The brown haired boy had ended his turn, and now it was Mei's turn to try and crack the board that the boy had. "Then it's my turn. I draw!" She said as she drew her card for the turn, starting with six cards in hand.

"Clock Tower Prison's effect!" Mamoru declared, and the hand clock of the giant clock tower behind him and Edo moved ever so slightly, a sign that it had gained a token during the opponent's turn.

"During my opponent's Standby Phase, I can place one Clock Counter on this card!" He explained the card's effect. "When there are 4 or more Clock Counters on this card, Edo and myself do not take any battle damage!"

Mei raised an eyebrow at that, probably also noting how slow the card was. "I see, then I'll start by activating a Terraforming of my own! And I'll use its effects to add Union Hangar from my deck to my hand!" The girl used her own copy of Terraforming and added her own deck's signature field spell.

"Or she could do that." She said in a monotone voice, and let out a sigh. "Right, field spells would get replaced if another one is played. I forgot that this was an incredibly weird Master Rule that we're living in."

"Did you say something?" Ryo asked, glancing at her. Ah, did she say that outloud? Whoops, her bad.

"Nothing, nothing. Just talking to myself and all." She said, waving the blue haired boy off and attempted to focus back on the duel that was happening in the center.

"And I'll activate it! Removing your Clock Tower Prison in the process!" Mei activated her own field spell, and the dark tower along with the mist surrounding it shattered, replaced by a giant mechanical hangar of machines, much to Mampru's dismay as seen by him visibly reacting to it.

"T-the Clock Tower's Prison is!" He shouted, mouth agape as he saw his game plan be easily dismantled, all while his opponent would be plusing with as she does so. His partner merely let out a sigh as he shook his head, seemingly already knowing that something like that would happen.

"Now Union Hangar's effect! When this card is activated, I can add one Light Machine Union monster from my deck to my hand." Mei said as she chose her target of choice. "I'll add A-Assault Core from my deck to my hand."

The girl added one of her combo pieces to her hand, and continued her turn. "I'll normal summon C-Crush Wyvern." The small violet haired girl placed the card on her duel disk, and the missile pod carrying purple wyvern appeared on her field.

C-Crush Wyvern - Light/Machine/Union/Level 4/Effect: 1200/2000

"Union Hangar's effect! Once per turn, if a Light Machine Union monster is normal or special summoned to my field, I can target one of those monsters and equip one appropriate Light Machine Union monster with a different name from my deck to that monster, but that Union monster equipped cannot be special summoned this turn." She explained the field spell's on board effect, and chose her target.

"I'll target C-Crush Wyvern, and equip Union Driver to it!" The futuristic looking machine then appeared behind the purple mechanical wyvern, along with its own mechanical driver. "Now Union Driver's effect! While it is an equip spell, I can banish it to quip one Level 4 or lower appropriate Union Monster from my deck to the monster that it was equipped to!"

The small violet haired girl then revealed the card that she would equip to the purple wyvern in place of Union Driver. "I'll equip B-Buster Drake to C-Crush Wyvern!" The yellow cannon carrying green drake then appeared behind the wyvern, combining with it creating a mechanical amalgamation of a wyvern and a drake, making the monster unaffected by spell effects.

"And now I'll activate from my hand the spell, Polymerization!" The girl declared, opening with Poly just like his opponent. "And with this card I'll be fusing my C-Crush Wyvern and the Volcanic Shell in my hand!" What.

She was once again blindsided as Mei decided to fuse the pyro monster from her hand along with the Union monster that she had on field as she raised her hands and intertwined them together and brought them down without a chant.

"Fusion Summon! Appear! Ignition Beast Volcannon!" The girl shouted, as the obscure monster then roared as it appeared on the field, with it's cannon shoulders and all. It's metallic tail swinging behind as it does.

Ignition Beast Volcannon - Earth/Machine/Fusion/Level 6/Effect: 2300/1600

"I-that's a tech option I guess." She grumbled out as she held her head in her hand and combed her hair. "I see the synergy at least. It is removal after all, even if it can miss timing. And if you use Volcanic Shell then you would also have discard fodder for ABC-Dragon Buster."

She ignored how the others were looking at her as she had all but dissected the reasoning as to why Mei would play the card. "Although that does make me wonder… does she run Blaze Fenix since she has a Pyro and all. "

"Volcannon's effect! When this card is Fusion Summoned, I can target one monster that you control and destroy both that target and this card, and inflict damage to you equal to the attack of the monster that was targeted by this effect! I'll target Chaos Ancient Gear Giant!" Mamoru's eyes went wide as he heard that.

"I'll chain the effects of C-Crush Wyvern and B-Buster Drake! Letting me special summon one Union monster from my hand and add one Union monster from my deck respectively!" She said, forming a chain in a way that the Fusion monster's when effect doesn't miss timing.

"I'll add another copy of B-Buster Drake itself, and special summon A-Assault Core in attack position!" The scorpion-like orange tank appeared on her field, standing beside the soon to be destroyed Volcannon.

A-Assault Core - Light/Machine/Union/Level 4/Effect: 1900/200

"Now Volcannon destroys itself along with your Chaos Ancient Gear Giant, burning you for 4500 damage!" The Fire Machine Fusion monster let out a mechanical cry, and self-destructed, taking along with it the gigantic Fusion monster that Mamoru had summoned, and burning more than half of his Life Points.

"I-I'll activate from my hand, the effect of Hanewata!" The brown haired boy revealed the card from his hand, the name of a card that she hasn't heard of since Frogs was viable as a meta deck.

"As a Quick Effect, I can discard this card to make it so that I can take no effect damage this turn!" The bowl cut brown haired boy discarded the Light monster, preventing himself and Edo from being OTKed this turn, along with the first showing of a hand trap used by a resident in this world, other than Mei or herself of course.

"N-no way! She managed to so easily destroy Chaos Ancient Gear Giant!"

"No no! Mamoru managed to prevent that damage you know! It would have been 4500! 4500 damage!"

"Amazing… I don't think that I could do anything like that..."

Although this was the first time that she actually saw someone actively run a Tuner monster in their deck, though it at least made sense since it was a hand trap. Not all Tuner monsters that she could find on the online shops were any good ones, and since there's no Synchro monsters as pay offs, they don't really have any uses.

Mei clicked her tongue when she saw that the brown haired boy had managed to prevent the burn damage. "But at least I managed to remove that monster, I'll banish A-Assault Core from my field, B-Buster Drake, and C-Crush Wyvern for a Contact Fusion!"

The small violet haired girl banished the monsters that she had named, and the three of them appeared on her field and interlocked with one another, creating the signature Boss Monster of her deck. "Fusion Summon! Appear! ABC-Dragon Buster!"

The titular Boss Monster of the ABC archetype appeared on her field, both of its heads letting out their respective mechanical roars, its cannons pointed and ready to fire towards the opponent.

ABC-Dragon Buster - Light/Machine/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 3000/2800

"Battle! I'll attack directly with ABC-Dragon Buster!" The mechanical Fusion monster let out its mechanical roar, and shot out its salvo towards the brown haired boy, who in response raised both of his hands to defend himself from the attack.

"Kuuh!" The boy grunted as he was hit by the lazers shot by the twin headed Fusion monster, receiving a hefty amount of damage from the attack.

Noro Mamoru & Edo Phoenix: 5000LP

"I'll set two cards face-down, and I'll activate the effect of Volcanic Shell in the graveyard." Mei declared, activating the graveyard effect of the Pyro monster that she had used as fusion material just earlier this turn.

"Once per turn, I can pay 500 LP to add 'Volcanic Shell' from my deck to my hand, and I'll do just that." The girl paid the cost for the card's activation cost, reducing her Life Points by a measly 500 in order to gain a discard fodder for her Boss Monster.

Mei & Serena: 7500LP

"I'll end my turn." The girl said, ending her turn with two set cards sitting behind her Boss Monster and its archetypal field spell, along with two cards in hand, one which was Volcanic Shell who would most definitely be the discard fodder for ABC-Buster Dragon.

Facing a fully built board like that however, the silver haired Edo still kept his cool, and started his turn. "My turn, I'll draw." He said as he drew the card for his turn and looked at the cards he had in hand.

"I'll start with the spell, Destiny Draw!" The boy said as he activated his archetypal draw spell. "This card allows me to discard one 'Destiny HERO' card to draw two cards." The boy explained as he revealed that card that he would be discarding.

"I will discard Destiny HERO - Dreamer, and draw two cards." The silver haired boy drew two cards after discarding the monster and continued his turn. "I'll activate the spell, D - Mind!" The boy declared, activating the spell that she had never heard of.

Another anime card, she wonders what it does, it would either be incredibly broken or incredibly meh. "This card can only be activated if I control no 'Destiny HERO' monsters. This lets me special summon one Level 3 or lower 'Destiny HERO' monster from my deck."

That's… a bit underwhelming. If it was Level 4 or lower instead of Level 3 then it would basically basically be A Hero Lives without costs, although Destiny HERO doesn't have a… well, a Stratos. That and the pool of Level 3 and lower Destiny HERO monsters was incredibly small.

"I'll special summon Destiny HERO - Doom Lord!" The boy declared, special summoning what was arguably the best target for the card that he used. The red cloaked HERO monster stood in the field, it's tattered cloak swaying behind him.

Destiny HERO - Doom Lord - Dark/Warrior/Level 3/Effect: 600/800

"Destiny HERO - Doom Lord's effect! Once per turn, I can target one monster that you control, and banish that target until your 2nd Standby Phase after this effect activation!" The silver haired boy then pointed towards his target, being none other than the only monster on Serena's and Mei's field.

"I'll target ABC-Dragon Buster! And banish it until the end of your 2nd Standby Phase! Destiny Road!" The red cloaked Destiny HERO raised both of his hands, and shot a dark ball towards the mechanical Fusion monster.

"Che, I'll activate the effect of ABC-Dragon Buster!" Mei declared, shotgunning the effect of her Ace Monster. "Once per turn, as a Quick Effect, I can discard one card, then target one card on the field and banish it! I'll target Destiny HERO - Doom Lord!"

The Fusion monster charges its cannons in retaliation with Mei discarding Volcanic Shell, but that wasn't the end of the chain. "And I'll activate it's other effect!" Mei declared. "During my opponent's turn, as a Quick Effect, I can tribute this card, then target 3 of my banished Light Machine Union monsters with different names and special summon them!"

She then took three cards from her duel disk' banish pile and by tributing the Fusion monster, essentially also dodging the effect of Doom Lord, she named the monsters that she would be summoning. "I'll special summon A-Assault Core, B-Buster Drake, and C-Crush Wyvern, all in defence position!"

The three monsters appeared on her side of the field, the orange scorpion-like tank, the green laser cannon carrying mechanical drake, and the purple missile pod carrying mechanical wyvern stood on her side, all in defence position to defend from any upcoming attack that her opponent could muster.

A-Assault Core - Light/Machine/Union/Level 4/Effect: 1900/200

B-Buster Drake - Light/Machine/Union/Level 4/Effect: 1500/1800

C-Crush Wyvern - Light/Machine/Union/Level 4/Effect: 1200/2000

The chain resolves, the first effect of ABC-Dragon Buster removing Destiny HERO - Doom Lord from play, and with the Doom Lord target no longer being in the field, it's effect fizzles. But it was still able to out Mei's Boss Monster, though the boy still has to chew through two more backrow, but with five cards in hand and still not having committed to his normal summon, that might be possible.

"I'll activate the spell, D - Spirit." The boy declared, activating another spell card from his hand. "This card allows me to special summon one Level 4 or lower 'Destiny HERO' monster from my hand. I can only activate this effect while I control no face-up 'Destiny HERO' monsters."

Another card that lets him special summon? What was his end goal in all of this? "I'll special summon Destiny HERO - Drilldark from my hand!" The boy slapped the card onto his duel disk, and the drill tehred Destiny HERO appeared on his side of the field.

Destiny HERO - Drilldark - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1200

"Destiny HERO - Drilldark's effect! When this card is normal or special summoned, I can special summon one 'Destiny HERO' monster from my hand with attack less than equal to this card's attack on the field!" The boy said, activating the monster's on summon effect.

In response, Mei revealed one of her set cards. "I'll activate the trap, Bottomless Trap Hole!" She said, revealing that one of her face-down that she had was a Hole card. "When my opponent summons a monster or monsters with 1500 or more attack, I can destroy that monster and banish it!"

The silver haired boy had no response for the trap's activation, and though it's effects was not negated, the drill based Destiny HERO was destroyed and banished. The chain still resolved, and he summoned a Destiny HERO monster from his hand.

"I'll special summon Destiny HERO - Drawhand!" The boy exclaimed as he special summoned the gun wielding Destiny HERO, the warrior in question spun the gun in his hand before pointing it towards his opponents.

Destiny HERO - Drawhand - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/800

"Drawhand's effect allows each player to draw one card when it is special summoned." The boy declared, and everyone in the tag duel drew one card from it's effect, giving everyone an extra card in their hand.

"Now I'll activate the effect of Vision HERO Faris in my hand!" The silver haired boy declared, continuing his combo line. Ah, he's actually using the cards that she gave him! She's kind of happy about that. His Destiny HEROes does have some slight problems in brick hands in a pure variant after all.

"This card lets me discard one other 'HERO' monster to special summon it. I'll discard Destiny HERO - Malicious from my hand and special summon Vision HERO Faris in attack position!" The boy discarded Mali, and the lightish red Vision HERO appeared on the field.

Vision HERO Faris - Dark/Warrior/Level 5/Effect: 1600/1800

"Faris' effect! If this card is normal or special summoned, I can place one 'Vision HERO' monster from my deck, except 'Vision HERO Faris', in my spell and trap zone as a face-up Continuous Trap, and for the rest of this turn, I cannot special summon monsters from the Extra Deck except 'HERO' monsters." The boy explained the monster's on summon effect.

"As a Continuous Trap? It can do that?" She heard Fubuki ask as he narrowed his eyes at the card that Edo had just played.

"It's the gimmick of Vision HEROes." She informed him. "Some of them have extra effects while they are treated as Continuous Trap cards, that being allowing to special summon themselves by tributing a 'HERO' monster. And then they can activate their own effects when they are special summoned from the spell and trap zone."

She raised a finger as she continued the explanation. "Only the Level 3 Vision HEROes has an innate special summon from the spell trap zone effect. That and the effect of when he takes damage from battle or an effect, they can place themselves from the graveyard into the spell and trap zone as a Continuous Trap cards."

"Oh, I see. Those are some cards huh." The brown haired boy said as he placed a hand on his chin and continued to watch the duel unfold.

"I'll place Vision HERO Increase in my spell and trap zone as a Continuous Trap!" The boy said as the mono-eye of Faris shone, and a spectral projection of Increase appeared behind it. "Now Increase's effect! While it is treated as a Continuous Trap, I can tribute one 'HERO' monster to special summon this card!"

The boy then pointed towards Faris. "I'll tribute Vision HERO Faris, and special summon Vision HERO Increase in defence position!" The lightish red Vision HERO was then tribute, and the previously Continuous Trap Increase manifested itself completely, revealing its true blue colored body.

Vision HERO Increase - Dark/Warrior/Level 3/Effect: 900/1100

Funnily enough he was now susceptible to Nibiru. Though she doubt that Mei had thought that she would be facing a combo deck. That and she hasn't even gotten her hands on that card. She should probably try and get a pack filled with Dinosaurs, those were some good cards after all.

"Now Increase's effect! If this card is special summoned from the spell and trap zone, I can special summon one Level 4 or lower 'Vision HERO' monster from my deck!" The boy then revealed the card that he would summon, and it was none other than the usual target for this HERO combo line.

"I'll special summon Vision HERO Vyon in attack position!" The mono-eye of Increase shone, and the purple colored Vision HERO made it onto the field, it's own mono-eye shining a light purple.

Vision HERO Vyon - Dark/Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1000/1200

The boy then waved his hand forward, activating Vyon's on summon effect. "I'll activate Vyon's effect! If this card is normal or special summoned, I can send one 'HERO' monster from my deck to the graveyard." The boy then revealed the monster that he would mill.

"I'll send Destiny HERO - Celestial from my deck to my hand. And I'll activate Vyon's other effect!" He declared, activating the second effect of Vyon. "I can banish one 'HERO' monster from my graveyard, and add one 'Polymerization' from my deck to my hand!"

The boy then chose the card that he would banish as the cost. "I'll banish Vision HERO Faris, and add one Polymerization from my deck to my hand." The boy added the fusion spell to his hand, but it was still not the end of the combo.

After all he hasn't even normal summoned, and he has three monsters on field already, an exact number for the special summon of an incredibly strong Boss Monster of his own archetype.

"I'll activate the effect of Destiny HERO - Malicious in the graveyard!" The boy declared, activating the monster that was quite infamous as a Dark Warrior extender in Warrior Toolbox. "I can banish this card from my graveyard, to special summon one 'Destiny HERO - Malicious' from my deck."

The winged Dark Warrior then appeared in his field in defence position, filling the silver haired boy's field with monsters.

Destiny HERO - Malicious - Dark/Warrior/Level 6/Effect: 800/800

"Now I'll tribute Vision HERO Vyon, Vision HERO Increase, and Destiny HERO - Drawhand, to special summon Destiny HERO - Dogma from my hand in attack positon!" The boy then tributed three of the monsters on his field, and summoned the Destiny HERO monster that required three tribute summoned, one of which includes a Destiny HERO.

The monster's wings unruffled, revealing its muscular body. It's eyes shone red ominously, and as he extended his right hand, a shining silver sword extended from it, and the monster then took an imposing pose as it stood in front of Edo and Mamoru.

Destiny HERO - Dogma - Dark/Warrior/Level 8/Effect: 3400/2400

"I'll set one card." The boy said, setting the card that was known to Polymerization from his hand. "And I'll activate the effect of Destiny HERO - Celestial in my graveyard!" He declared, activating the effect of the monster in question.

Wait what, wasn't Celestial's draw effect one that can't be activated the turn that it was sent to the grave? Was it an anime thing that instantly let's him draw two just by having it in the grave and no cards in hand?

Welp, that's kind of broken. She just opened her Shop to see that yes, it could be activated the turn it was sent to the grave, and similarly, Disk Commander was not a once per duel effect in this format.

Uhh, maybe she shouldn't give Edo that Fusion Destiny like she wanted… that would be just a bit too overpowered, even by her standards. Imagine if he were to summon a Dystopia with Fusion Destiny by dumping both DIsk Commander and Celestial, that would be a plus 2 in that immediate turn and another plus 2 if he's able to summon Disk Commander.

"While I have no cards in hand, I can banish this card and one 'Destiny HERO' monster from my graveyard to draw 2 cards!" He declared, and chose the target that he would also banish for its effect. "I'll banish Destiny HERO - Celestial and Destiny HERO - Dreamer, to draw two cards!"

The silver haired boy drew two cards, and the crowd's cheer went wild at how long, and consistent, the boy's combo was. "I'll normal summon Destiny HERO - Decider." The boy said, and the fish-man like Destiny HERO appeared on the field. It was a niche card to waste a normal summon on. Though she kind of wondered what he was going to choose for its summon effect.

Destiny HERO - Decider - Dark/Warrior/Fusion/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1000

"Decider's effect! If this card is normal or special summoned, I can add one 'HERO' monster from my graveyard to my hand during the End Phase of this turn." He said as he continued the turn and combo line.

"Now I'll activate the set card, the spell, Polymerization!" He declared, activating the spell. "I'll fuse Destiny HERO - Decider and Destiny HERO - Malicious on my field!" The two monsters then were raised onto the spiral of blue and orange, and the silver haired boy raised his hands.

"O hero that decided the fate of victory! Together with the hero who holds the evil's malice! Become one and become the ruler in this dark era!" The boy intertwined his hands and brought it down to complete the fusion chant.

"Fusion Summon! Come on! Destiny HERO - Dystopia!" The purple Destiny HERO Fusion monster appeared on the field, the D-sign emblezed in his head shining red as he stood next to the sword handed Dogma.

Destiny HERO - Dystopia - Dark/Warrior/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 2800/2400

"Destiny HERO - Dystopia's effect! If this card is special summed, I can target one Level 4 or lower 'Destiny HERO' monster in my graveyard and inflict damage equal to the target's effect!" Edo said, explaining the monster's on summon effect.

"I'll target Destiny HERO Decider in my graveyard, and deal 1600 damage! Squeeze Palm!" The Fusion Destiny HERO monster extended his right arm, and a duct opened in his right palm and sucked the air around it.

The squeezing air made Mei and Serena raise their hands, they received damage from the monster's effect, though since they all had 8000 LIfe Points, they still had a hefty amount left.

Mei & Serena: 5900LP

"Battle! I'll attack your A-Assault Core with Dogma! Death Chronicle!" The sword handed Destiny HERO swung its sword, destroying the scorpion-like orange tank easily, and sending it to the graveyard.

"A-Assault Core's effect doesn't trigger since I don't have any other Union monster in the graveyard." Mei said as the monster's effect fizzled, not being able to trigger since there was no targets.

"Now I'll attack your C-Crush Wyvern with Dystopia! Dystopia Blow!" The Fusion Destiny HERO conjured a ball of darkness in his hand, and threw it towards the purple wyvern, destroying it and sending it to the graveyard.

"C-Crush Wyvern's effect!" Mei declared activating the monster's graveyard effect. "If this card is sent from the field to the graveyard, I can special summon one Union monster from my hand!" She then revealed the monster that she would summon with its effect.

"I'll special summon Union Driver in attack position!" She said as the futuristic car appeared on her field as a monster, it's robotic driver climbing out of it and standing beside the car in question.

Union Driver - Light/Machine/union/Level 5/Effect: 2100/1000

"I'll end my turn. And with the effect of Decider, I will add VIsion HERO Vyon to my hand." The boy said, ending his relatively long combo line to summon a Dogma and a Dystopia that could not interact with the opponent with its effect and two cards in hand, one being Vyon, while leaving Mei with two monsters on the field.

"Wow! As expected of Edo-san! You managed to summon two incredibly strong monsters in one turn!" Mamoru said as he looked towards his partner, who simply ignored him as his voice got drowned by the crowd's cheer.

"And he even managed to remove Mei's Fusion Monster too! He really is a genius duelist!"

She ignored the crowd's cheer and what they were saying. It would have definitely been better if he was able to open Plasma instead of Dogma, but hey, it can… half your opponent's life she guesses. It isn't much, but it does come up, and not to mention that this 8000LP format was definitely something that the boy was not used to playing in, playing a card that could cut that number to half easily was kind of understandable.

"Then it's my turn!" Serena declared as she placed a hand over her duel disk. "I draw!" She said as she drew a card, starting her own turn with seven cards in hand thanks to the effect of Drawhand.

"Destiny HERO - Dogma's effect!" The silver haired duelist exclaimed, activating what seems to be his win condition's effect. "During each of your Standby Phase, I can halve your Life Points if this card is face-up! Life Absolute!

A pillar of purple light then shone from the winged Destiny, and the same happened to Serena and Mei, who grunted while scowling and yelped each, as their Life Points was halved by the monster's apparently not a once per summon effect.

Mei & Serena: 2950LP

"Kuh! So it has that kind of effect!" Mei grumbled as she stood her ground even after having her Life Points halved by Dogma's effect. "But there's no set cards on tier fields, and that Dystopia doesn't have it's attack boosted so-"

"It doesn't have the effect to destroy a card on the field!" Serena completed the sentence, and started the play of her turn. "From my hand, I'll activate the continuous spell, Fire Formation - Tenki!" She said, activating the continuous spell as it shone on her side of the field.

"When this card is activated, I can add one Levle 4 or lower Beast-Warrior monster from my deck to my hand!" Explaining so, Serena then showed the card that she would add to her hand with its searching effect. "I'll add Lunalight Emerald Bird from my deck to my hand, and summon her!"

The girl immediately summoned the monster that she had just added to her hand, the winged Beast-Warrior dancing on the battlefield, standing beside the two other monsters on her side of the field.

Lunalight Emerald Bird - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1200/1000

The monster then shone with dark light, boosting it's attack ever so slightly thanks to the effect of Tenki being face-up on her side of the field.

Lunalight Emerald Bird - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1300/1000

"Emerald Bird's effect activates! If this card is normal or special summoned, I can send one 'Lunalight' card from my hand to the graveyard, and if I do, I can draw one card!" The indigo haired girl then revealed the card that she would discard.

"I'll discard Lunalight Purple Butterfly, and draw one card!" She said as she discarded the monster in question, and drew one card. "Now Purple Butterfly's effect! I can banish her from the graveyard to special summon one 'Lunalight' monster from my hand!"

Saying so, she then revealed the card that she would special summon with Purple Butterfly's graveyard effect. "I'll special summon Lunalight Kaleido Chick from my hand in attack position!"

The girl placed the card on her duel disk's sword projection, and the small yellow Beast-Warrior appeared on her side of the field, spinning beside the other winged Lunalight on the field.

Lunalight Kaleido Chick - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1400/800

Said yellow chick then began to shine, her attack rising thanks to the effect of Tenki.

Lunalight Kaleido Chick - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1500/800

"Now Kaleido Chick's effect! Once per turn, I can send one 'Lunalight' monster from my deck or Extra Deck to the graveyard, and the name of this face-up card on the field can be treated as that sent monster's if used as fusion material this turn!" The indigo haired girl explained the card's effect.

She then showed the card that she would sent to the grave, that being none other than a Fusion Monster from her Extra Deck. "I'll send Lunalight Panther Dancer from the Extra Deck to the grave!"

The small yellow Lunalight monster waved the sticks that she held in her hand, and shone with dark light as the silhouette of Panther Dancer appeared behind her, a sign that showed that she was now treated as the monster in question.

Lunalight Panther Dancer - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1500/800

"Now from my hand, I'll activate the spell, Lunalight Fusion!" Serena said, playing her archetypal fusion spell, and with Kaleido Chick on the field being treated as Panther Dancer, and with Edo having Dystopia on the field, she could easily summon her own Ace Monster.

"This card lets me summon one 'Lunalight' Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck using monsters from my hand or field as fusion materials, and since you control a monster that was special summoned from the Extra Deck, I can also use one 'Lunalight' monster from in my deck or Extra Deck as fusion material!" The ponytailed girl explained the card's effect, and chose the fusion materials.

"I'll fuse Lunalight Kaleido Chick who is treated as Lunalight Panther Dancer in my field, Lunalight Blue Cat from my hand, and Lunalight Crimson Fox from my deck!" She said as she named all three of her fusion materials, and the three named monsters appeared briefly on her field as she began to intertwine her fingers and started her chant.

"O wildest beast dancing under the moonlight! O cat of darkness! And o crimson fox! Become one in the vortex of power, and show your new power!" She finished her fusion chant as she brought her hand down. "Fusion Summon! Appear! King of beasts dancing under the moonlight! Lunalight Leo Dancer!"

The white haired Fusion Monster jumped onto the field, fully masked by an orange moon-based mask as it shattered, revealing her crimson iris and yellow pupil, along with yellow marks on her hair, forming into a crescent. And her shattered mask reformed into a crescent shaped hair decoration, as the monster danced around with her crimson side skirt fluttering in the air.

Lunalight Leo Dancer - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 3500/3000

Said monster twirled her sword as she too, shone in dark light, receiving an attack boost from the face-up continuous spell that was on the field.

Lunalight Leo Dancer - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 3600/3000

"Crimson Fox's effect! If this card is sent to the graveyard by a card effect, I can target one face-up monster that you control, and reduce it's attack to zero until the end of the turn!" The indigo haired girl then pointed towards the highest attack monster on Edo and Mamoru's field.

"I'll reduce the attack of Destiny HERO - Dogma's attack to zero!" The crimson colored Lunalight monster appeared and danced around the sword handed Destiny HERO, reducing the monster's attack to zero and leaving Edo and Mamoru vulnerable to an OTK.

Destiny HERO - Dogma - Dark/Warrior/Level 8/Effect: 0/2400

"Now I'll activate the spell, Luna Light Perfume!" The indigo haired girl said, continuing her combo line to go and try to end the match. "This card lets me target one 'Lunalight' monster in my graveyard and special summon it! I'll target Lunalight Blue Cat and special summon her in attack positon!"

The blue colored Lunalight monster then appeared on her field, performing a somersault as she was summoned from the grave, and stood beside the other Lunalight monster that Serena had on field.

Lunalight Blue Cat - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1600/1200

The monster then shone with dark blue light as her attack was raised slightly with the effect of the Beast-Warrior searcher card.

Lunalight Blue Cat - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/Effect: 1700/1200

Serena then waved her hand outwards, and prepared her final move of the turn to end the game. "Cat Dancer's effect! If this card is special summoned, I can target one 'Lunalight' monster I control except 'Lunalight Blue Cat' and its attack will become double its original attack until the end of this turn!"

She pointed to the one and only Fusion Monster that she has on board. "I will target Lunalight Leo Dancer, and double her original attack!" The lion based Lunalight monster brandished her sword as she glowed a dark blue while Blue Cat danced around her, doubling her original attack and reaching a number that could easily topple all monsters that was one her opponent's field.

Lunalight Leo Dancer - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 7100/3000

"Battle! I'll attack Destiny HERO - Dogma with Linalight Leo Dancer!" The Lunalight Boss Monster swung her sword, to which the Destiny HERO responded by clashing with his own blade.

Edo clicked his tongue, knowing that if he lets this attack through, then it would be the end of the match. "I'll activate the effect of Destiny HERO - Dynatag in my hand!" He said, revealing that the last card that was unknown in his hand when he drew with Celestial was Dynatag.

"During damage calculation, when I would take damage, as a Quick Effect, I can discard this card to make myself take no battle damage from that battle! And if I do, each player takes 1000 damage!" He exclaimed.

"B-but we have Destiny HERO - Decider in the graveyard!" Mamoru chimed in. "When a card or effect is activated that would inflict damage to us while it is in the grave, as a Quick Effect we can return this card to our hand and make that effect damage zero! Great work, Edo-san!"

And just as the bowl cut brown haired boy said, Edo activated Decider's garveyard effect, returning it to his hand and preventing him from taking damage from Dynatag's effect in a chain. And with Dynatag's hand trap effect resolving, he managed to survive Leo Dancer's attack.

The Lunalight Fusion Mosnter's blade easily cut through the Destiny HERO's own, bisecting it and the monster into two and turning it into motes of light, before it exploded and making both Serena and Mei receiving 1000 points of damage.

"Kyaa!" Mei yelped as she was hit by the brunt of the explosion, not managing to put a proper guard, while Serena grunted as she held out a hand to defend herself from the solid holographic explosion that Dynatag let out as it was discarded.

Mei & Serena: 1950LP

"Guh! Leo Dancer's effect!" Serena shouted as she waved off the dust cloud that the holographic explosion made. "Once per turn, at the end of the Damage Step, if this card attacked a monster, I can destroy all special summoned monsters you control!"

Both Edo's and Mamoru's eyes went wide at the declaration of the Fusion Monster's effect, and as there was no response to the card's effect, purple lighting erupted from Leo Dancer's sword, destroying the one and only remaining monster on her opponent's side of the field.

"This is the end! Leo Dancer can make a second attack each Battle Phase! Attack one more, Leo Dancer!" The lion based Lunalight monster dashed forwards once more, intending to attack to close out the game.

"F-from my hand, I'll activate the effect of Battle Fader!" Mamoru shouted out, showing the other card that he had on his hand. "When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack, I can special summon this card from my hand, then end the battle phase!"

Mamoru frantically placed the monster on his duel disk's sword projection, and the Battle Phase ending monster appeared on the field, floating in defence position and protecting Edo and Mamoru from being out of the match.

Battle Fader - Dark/Fiend/Level 1/Effect: 0/0

Seeing that her Battle Phase had ended, and she had failed to close out the game, Serena closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "I'll set one card face-down, and I end my turn. And Leo Dancer's attack returns to normal."

Lunalight Leo Dancer - Dark/Beast-Warrior/Fusion/Level 10/Effect: 3600/3000

"Amazing! They managed to survive that attack!"

"I don't think that anyone could have survived that attack… but to think that Edo could have done it!"

She had a grin as she saw the duel unfold. Everyone has really, really grown far, especially in a deck building perspective. At this point, everyone's deck has already reached a constructed level, a level where they can easily summon out their Boss Monster turn one.

And although no one in this tournament was seemingly playing floodgates, they were playing turbo decks. Things that she had been teaching them, along with consistency boosters. It was a strange feeling, basically seeing a tournament where you basically shaped the meta yourself.

"T-then it's my turn! I draw!" Mamoru shouted out as he drew a card for his turn, starting his turn with three cards in hand. If he's able to somehow put a body that could deal over 1950 damage through Emerald Bird, then he could win the game.

The boy saw his draw for the run, and blinked his eyes before grinning. "I'll normal summon Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!" The boy said, summoning what looks like to be his top deck, and it just had to be his deck's own fusion spell on legs.

Ancient Gear Hunting Hound- Earth/Machine/Level 3/Effect: 1000/1000

"Ancient Gear Hunting Hound's effect! If this card is normal summoned, I can inflict 600 damage!" The monster let out a mechanical roar, and reduced Serena and Mei's even lower by another 600 points.

The two girls winced as their Life Points were lowered even more, putting them even closer to lethal range than they already were.

Mei & Serena: 1350LP

"Now I'll activate the effect of Ancient Gear Hunting Hound!" The brown haired boy declared, intending to perform a fusion. "Once per turn, I can Fusion Summon one 'Ancient Gear' Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck using monsters from my hand or field as fusion materials!"

The boy revealed a card, one of the other cards in his hand that he would use for material. "I'll fuse Ancient Gear Hunting Hound in my field and Ancient Gear Box in my hand!" The two monsters then floated into the air as they were disassembled into gears and parts, fusing into a single Fusion Monster as he chanted.

"O ancient souls residing in hunting hounds! Along with ancient machines, become one in the vortex of power and show your new power!" He chanted as he intertwined his hand and brought it down. "Fusion Summon! Appear! Ancient Gear Howitzer!"

The mechanicalFusion Monster appeared on the boy's side of the field, it's gears clicking and clacking as it moved its cannons, pointing it towards the two girls as it loaded its salvo. Unlike usual, the monster was summoned in attack position, though she could take a guess as to why he did so.

Ancient Gear Hunting Howitzer - Earth/Machine/Fusion/Level 8/Effect: 1000/1800

"Now Howitzer's effect! Once per turn, during my Main Phase, I can inflict 1000 damage yo you! Howitzer Fire!" The brown haired boy shouted, and the Fusion Monster shot its salvo and burned Mei and Serena for more.

""KYAA!"" Serena and Mei let out a scream, their Life Points lowered into an even lower than before, putting them extremely close to being out of the game.

Mei & Serena: 350LP

"Now battle!" The boy declared, as expected he wanted to crash his own Howitzer to try and end the game. "I'll attack your Lunalight Emerald Bird with my Ancient Gear Howitzer!" The ancient machine shot its slavo, though the Lunalight monster simply dodged the attack gracefully as if it was a dance, and countered with an attack of her own, destroying the Fusion Monster in battle.

Edo and Mamoru's Life Points were reduced ever so slightly, but with that Howitzer being destroyed by battle and being sent to the graveyard, it can now float into any Ancient Gear monster from the deck and go for lethal.

Noro Mamoru & Edo Phoenix: 4700LP

"Howitzer's effect activates!" The brown haired boy declared, balling his fist as he raised it. "If this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon one 'Ancient Gear' monster from my deck ignoring its summoning conditions!"

He then revealed the monster that he would summon with its effect to his opponents, with a grin on his face. "I'll special summon Ancient Gear Golem in attack position ignoring its summoning conditions!"

The titular giant of the Ancient gear archetype returned to the field, or rather another copy of the monster appeared on the field, intending to finish up the game by attaching any of Serena's unguarded monsters.

Ancient Gear Golem - Earth/Machine/Level 8/Effect: 3000/3000

But before Mamoru could give the order for the attack, Mei activated a card of her own in response to the summon. "I'll activate the trap, E.M.R.!" She said, revealing the final set card that she had set earlier this game as the card's holographic projection shone.

"This card lets us tribute one Machine monster, then target one card on the field for every 1000 original attack of the tributed monster." Serena explained the card's effect between breaths.

""We'll tribute Union Driver! And destroy your Ancient Gear Golem and Battle Fader!"" The mechanical cannon then appeared on the field, loading B-Buster Drake into it, and they both each pointed together towards the monsters that remained on their opponent's field.

The cannon shot, hitting the ancient mechanical monster and the floating fiend exploding them into bits and pieces of scraps and metal. Leaving Mamoru and Edo's field to be empty and the boy who was the current turn controller was left with one card in hand, left mouth agape.

"I-I-" His eyes went back and forth from the only card in his hand to his partner, who had his eyes closed and shook his head. Seeing that they had no chance of winning from this position, the boy scowled as he placed a hand on his duel disk.

"... I end my turn." He said quietly, and the turn controller went and passed to Mei.

"Then it's my turn! Draw!" She said as she took a card in her hand, though she ignored it in favour of ending the game. ""Battle! I'll attack with our monsters!"" Mei and Serena said simultaneously, and the monsters on their field performed their attacks.

""GUAAAH!"" Mamoru and Edo screamed as their Life Points were hit directly, reducing their Life Points for way over lethal, and ending this relatively long game.

Noro Mamoru & Edo Phoenix: 0LP

Cheers erupted in the crowd, louder than ever before. The two girls turned towards each other and grinned. High fiving each other as a celebration for winning their first match of the tournament.

She couldn't help but feel fired up herself. Edo and Mamoru's deck was at a level of constructed, and that's not even mentioning Mei and Serena's own cards. She wondered what would the twins' and Ryo and Fubuki's deck be? How good would they be? What cards would they use? Would they synergize with each other? Would it be able to build a strong board? OTK easily?

"Jeez, you seem to be excited aren't you." She heard Yuri say, the hypocrite. He himself was smiling ear to ear, a smile that clearly states that he was excited and was just itching to duel himself.

She couldn't wait for it to reach the finals, so that she could finally duel against whoever would reach them that is.

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