The pair shuffled their decks and then cut their opponent's deck once. When this was done, they both drew five cards to begin the game. Gaius looked at his opening hand and tried to discern a strategy. 'Dekoichi the Battle-chained Locomotive, X-head Cannon, Covering Fire, Machine Duplication, and Reflect Bounder.' He quickly organized his hand with monster cards in front and waited for Mako to make his move.

The fisherman smiled wide and played one card from his hand face-up onto the table. "I play Abyss Soldier. This powerful beast has 1800 attack points, more than enough for whatever puny kind of deck you play. I'll then place one card facedown, and will activate one of my favorite spell cards: A Legendary Ocean. This card decreases the level of all Water monsters in my hand by 1 star, as well as powering up any of my denizens of the deep by 200 attack points. Let's see if you can come close to matching my sea creature's might."

Gaius frowned for a moment as he started to draw for his turn. 'Machine King, this won't help right now. I'm surprised he was able to make such a strong showing in the very first turn of the game. None of the cards in my hand can come close to taking out his Abyss Soldier. I better play it safe for now and play defensively. I can always wait to draw something better on my next turn.' He pulled Dekoichi from his hand and set the card on the field, and readied Covering Fire behind it. "I play one monster facedown and then set one card onto the field." He gritted his teeth as his turn ended, knowing that being put on the defense so early in a duel was never good.

Mako Tsunami laughed as he began his turn. "What was all that talk before about us being on equal levels? I will show you the true power of the ocean, and your body shall lay broken against the rocky shore! Time to play a monster from the long-forgotten past, Warrior of Atlantis. This monster has 1900 attack, 100 more than my Abyss Soldier, so its power becomes 2100 with my field power boost." He seemed to study his hand for a moment before he revealed a fish-looking creature to Gaius. "I can use my Abyss Soldier's effect by discarding any Water-attribute monster to return any one card on the field to its owner's hand. I'll choose to send your facedown back row card. If you were hoping to surprise my monsters with a trap card, you're out of luck. I can use Abyss Soldier's effect once per turn as long as I pay the cost, and I have more than enough guppies to feed to my beasts."

Gaius sighed as he picked up his Covering Fire card. 'At least I wasn't banking on using this card to stop his monsters. The effect of his creature is seriously disruptive, I have to find a way to take that out if I want to have any hope of winning.' The young man looked towards his opponent, who seemed to be readying to attack.

"I'll have my Abyss Soldier attack your facedown monster. It's time to be dragged kicking and screaming into the dark depths below!"

Gaius flipped up his monster, revealing Dekoichi. "When Dekoichi the Battlechained Locomotive is flipped Face-up, I may draw an extra card from my deck." He drew from the deck, and looked down as he saw Axe of Despair. 'Nice. I can use this with my X-Head Cannon to destroy one of his monsters on my next turn, but first I'm going to lose half of my life points.'

Mako shook his head at his opponent as he saw what monster was destroyed. "A Machine deck, huh? I hope you've now seen that my ocean creatures can cause any of your technological marvels to rust and decay. I'll now have my Warrior of Atlantis attack you directly, decreasing your life points from 4000 to 1900. With one direct attack you're more than halfway to defeat. It's your move, my friend. Let's see if you can recover."

Gaius paused as he analyzed his hand. 'I have to hope that his facedown card isn't a trap. If I play my X-Head Cannon and am unsuccessful in taking out his Abyss Soldier, it may be all over for me.' The young man drew for his turn. 'Another Dekoichi,' he sighed slowly. 'Trying to stall when I'm already on defense won't help, so I have to attack.' He grabbed X-Head Cannon and played it onto the field. "I play this card, in attack mode."

Mako laughed openly as he read the card's attack. "Gaius that monster is far too weak to match with my creatures, you'll need another card in order to take any of my monsters down."

Gaius sneered for a moment and then flashed his Axe of Despair card from his hand. "I'll equip my X-Head Cannon with Axe of Despair. This equip spell card raises the attack power of my monster by 1000, making it 2800. This is more than enough to take out your army. X-Head Cannon will attack your Abyss Soldier, decreasing your life points by 800." The young duelist smiled for a second and tried to formulate his next move. 'With only one monster in play, it'll take only one big attack from Mako and I'll be back to square one. I may as well set Covering Fire again to try and bluff him.' "I'll then set one card facedown and will end my turn."

Mako grumbled to himself as he drew for his turn. "I'll set one monster facedown and then a second back-row card facedown as well. Finally, I'll switch my Warrior of Atlantis into defense mode, and then will end my turn."

Gaius smiled wide as he drew. "I guess you didn't get what you needed, Mako. It's nice to see you on the defensive now." He then examined the card he just drew. 'Y-Dragon Head, excellent. I can combine this with my X-Head Cannon to destroy his face-up Spell and Trap cards, but since the only one he has now is the field spell, I'm better off wiping out both of his monsters this turn.' He thought for a second and decided on what to play. "I'll summon Y-Dragon Head in attack mode. I'll then move to my battle phase and my X-Head Cannon will wipe out your facedown monster."

As Gaius declared his attack, Mako defiantly shook his head. "When you enter your battle phase, I'll activate both of my facedown cards. Tornado Wall and Astral Barrier, activate! Use the power of the sea to negate my opponent's attack." Mako laughed as Gaius looked confused for a moment. "Tornado Wall says I take no battle damage from any attack while A Legendary Ocean is on the field, and Astral Barrier lets me make any attack that you make bypass my monsters and hit me directly, which is then negated by Tornado Wall. My sea creatures are untouchable by any attack, and my life points are perfectly safe as well. So, is it my turn now?" He asked his young opponent.

"Not yet, Mako. I still have a second main phase after my battle phase. I'll send both X-Head Cannon and Y-Dragon Head to the graveyard to special summon XY-Dragon Cannon from my Fusion Deck. My new monster has a special effect, the exact kind that will help me right now. I'll discard my Dekoichi from my hand, to destroy one face-up spell or trap that you have in play. I think I'll select A Legendary Ocean, and as soon as that card leaves the field, so does your Tornado Wall. Your three-card combo is very nice, but even the best strategy can be picked apart one card at a time. I'll then end my turn, let's see what you've got."

The seaman gritted his teeth as he drew for his turn. "Not many opponents think to target A Legendary Ocean, but normally I'm able to defend my sea better as well. I hate to do this, but I don't have a choice if I want to take out your Fusion monster. I'll sacrifice both my monsters to summon Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth. This behemoth has 2800 attack power, and I can special summon four level four or lower Fish monsters from my deck to support my great beast." He quickly rifled through his deck and placed four monsters on the field. "I'll play 3 Torpedo Fish and one Deepsea Macrotrema, all in defense mode. The monsters cannot attack and have their effects negated, but I can sacrifice one if you try to target my Coleacanth and stop the effect of your card. For now though, I'll have my Coleacanth attack your monster, reducing your life points by 600 and clearing your board besides your one leftover facedown card. After that, you may go."

Gaius looked down at his nigh-empty field and at the cards in his hand. 'He has 3200 life points, and I have only 1300. I need to come up with a good strategy soon or else I'll be stuck with this guy. I only have Machine Duplication, Machine King and Reflect Bounder in my hand, and I still get one card for the turn. Reflect Bounder can use its effect to inflict damage to his life-points, but he'd still have 400 points left and mine would be reduced to 200. He could just attack me again next turn and that would be the end of me.' He sighed and slowly drew a card to begin his turn. As he looked at the card in his hand, a smile spread across his face.

'I actually pulled this card,' he thought as he looked at his Cyber Dragon card. 'I've never been able to play this card in any of my practice duels, but I know it's incredibly powerful. I can use its effect to bolster my fighting force and get two monsters out in one turn. "Since you have a monster on the field and I do not, I can special summon Cyber Dragon from my hand onto my side of the field in attack mode. Then I normal summon my Reflect Bounder, also in attack mode. I'll have my Cyber Dragon and my Reflect Bounder both attack your Torpedo Fish. Since they were in defense mode, your life points are safe, but the same isn't true of your monsters." The young man felt a small amount of confidence as his turn ended. 'If he plays how I think he will, I'll be able to take out his creature on his next turn.'

Mako quickly drew a card from his deck and set one card facedown. "I don't want to attack your Reflect Bounder because of its effect, but your Cyber Dragon is easy pickings for my Coelacanth. Its attack will destroy your monster and deal you 600 points of damage."

"Not so fast Mako," Gaius interrupted, "as you declare your attack on Cyber Dragon, I activate my facedown Covering Fire. It lets me add the attack points of my Reflect Bounder to my Cyber Dragon. That raises his attack power all the way to 3800, which destroys your sea creature and deals you 1000 points of damage." Gaius sighed in relief as Mako discarded his Coelacanth from the field. 'He fell for it, good. Even so I need to keep playing smart otherwise I'll lose.'

Mako looked frustrated as he glanced at the cards in his hand. "I guess I'll just end my turn. I wasn't expecting you to be able to defeat my great beast, but beware…my ancient Coelacanth is not the biggest nor the best creature in my deck. You may have won the battle, but before the duel is over the war shall be mine!"

A sense of panic overcame Gaius for a moment as he began his turn. 'Does he really have something better than that giant creature? It was hard enough to destroy that monster in the first place, and I'd hate to have to try and take down something that Mako thinks is even stronger.' The young man drew for his turn and examined the card he obtained. 'Mechanicalchaser, that's one of the strongest four star or lower monsters in my deck. I can play him and have my smaller monsters wipe out his field, and finally my Cyber Dragon can attack him directly, leaving him only 100 left.' He placed his new monster onto the field and announced his move. "I'll play my Mechanicalchaser and then have him and my Reflect Bounder attack your two fish."

Mako laughed as Gaius declared the attack on his creatures. "I'll activate my facedown card, Waboku. My trap prevents my monsters from being destroyed by battle this turn, and it keeps my life points completely safe."

Gaius let out an exasperated noise as he saw his attack fail. 'I assumed that was a trap, but I was hoping for something not as widespread. Even if he destroyed one of my monsters it would have been worth it if the other attacks were successful. I don't really have any other cards in my hand that I can use, so I guess I have to end my turn and hope for better results next round.' He placed his hand down in front of him as he announced the end of his turn. "Your trap was a good play Mako. That leaves me out of options, so I have no choice but to end."

Mako sneered slightly as he began his turn. "You may have the advantage right now, but that's all about to change." He then placed a card from his hand into the graveyard. "I can discard the Warrior of Atlantis from my hand to search my deck for A Legendary Ocean card and put it into my hand. I'll then play the field spell to boost my monsters. My next card will be summoning Orca, Mega Fortress of Darkness in attack mode." The duelist then sent his Torpedo Fish to the graveyard. "With my Orca's effect, I can destroy any monster on the field by sacrificing a Torpedo Fish. I'll target your Reflect Bounder with the effect, ending the nuisance once and for all. Next, I'll have my Orca attack with 2300 points on your Cyber Dragon, which inflicts 200 points of damage to your life points, then it's your turn. You have only one monster left in play, and next turn that will be gone as well, along with any chance of you winning this duel."

The younger duelist looked at his field and wondered what he could do to stop the relentless assault by Mako. 'No matter how many times I seem to push him back in this duel, he keeps coming back again and again with a never-ending army of sea creatures. His deck must have a weakness that I can exploit.' He paused as he perused the cards in his hand. 'Nothing that I have here will help me stop his creatures. I need some way to stall while I recoup my forces.' He drew for his turn, and smiled wide as he played the card. "Luck has rewarded me, Mako. I play the Swords of Revealing Light spell card. This prevents you from attacking me for three whole turns, which should be more than enough time for me to launch a counter-attack. In the meantime, I can have my Mechanicalchaser attack your Macrotrema, leaving you with only your Orca in attack mode and one monster in defense on the field. With that, my turn ends."

Mako lightly pounded his fist on the table as he looked at his hand. "I can't believe you got a draw that lucky. Since I can't attack, I may as well just increase my sea army. With my draw for the turn, I'll play one monster facedown in defense mode and I'll end my turn."

'My Swords of Revealing Light card has stopped Mako in his tracks,' thought Gaius. 'Now I just need to draw something good to take out his Orca.' He sighed as he saw his draw. 'Oh lovely, Perfect Machine King. If I had a monster in play besides Mechanicalchaser this would be an amazing draw, but right now it's useless to me. I can at least sacrifice my chaser to summon Machine King in attack mode. That way he'd have 2300 attack and would match Mako's Orca. If I'm able to play another machine monster on my next turn I could take out his whale for good.' The young man smiled as he made his move. "I'll sacrifice my Mechanicalchaser to play Machine King in attack mode. He gets an extra 100 attack points for each machine on the field, which increases his attack from 2200 to 2300. My Machine King can't defeat your Orca yet without being destroyed himself, so instead I'll have him attack your defense position monster."

Mako flipped over his facedown monster and laughed gleefully. "You attacked my Yomi Ship. This boat is infested with a devastating plague that infects and destroys any monster who attacks it, including mechanical ones. That means your Machine King is destroyed, and once again you have no monsters on the field. I thought you were really going to give me a challenge Gaius, but you haven't even faced my most powerful monster yet. By the looks of it I won't even need to use him in this duel, and I won't even draw him by the time my denizens of the deep lay waste to your life points." He continued to chuckle as Gaius glared at his opponent.

'I have no other low-cost monsters in my hand, and nothing else that I can use either,' Gaius thought. 'My Swords is the only thing keeping his attack force at bay, and in two more turns he'll be free to direct an all-out attack against me. If I ever needed another good draw it's right now, before my card expires.' He paused and checked his hand. "I have to end my turn," he meekly uttered. Gaius wanted nothing more than to show up his arrogant opponent, but he wasn't sure if he had the means.

"Splendid," Mako beamed. "I'll begin my turn by drawing and playing my last Warrior of Atlantis in Attack mode. He can't attack this turn due to your Swords of Revealing Light but that's fine by me, just one more turn and the waves shall crash upon you. I now end my turn, so feel free to draw and try to find a way to beat my creatures."

Gaius slowly muttered to himself and drew a card. 'Needle Burrower, this card needs one tribute in order for me to summon it. He felt distraught and looked at his deck with a sense of woe. 'Normally I have much better games than this with my fiend deck, I don't know what's wrong. Maybe I just haven't broken in the cards enough for me to get the right feel for the deck, plus this was kind of thrown together in a week so I guess it's kind of expected. I can't let this kind of luck get me down once we get to the island. Odds are one bad game and I'll be knocked out of the tournament, and I'd feel like a total failure if I lose in the first round.' He placed the cards in his hand facedown on the table and looked down at his field. "It's your turn, Mako. I have nothing."

The fishermen drew and as he looked at his card, he nodded and began to speak. "This is the last turn that my monsters are held captive by your Swords of Revealing Light, but I have just drawn the card that will seal your fate. I will sacrifice my Warrior of Atlantis and my Orca Mega Fortress of Darkness to summon my most powerful creature and the rarest card I own, The Tyrant Neptune!"

Gaius looked at the newly-summoned creature and was baffled. "Your monster has 0 attack points Mako, I would hardly call it powerful by any means. Did you ever hit your head when you were out swimming in a pool or something?"

The man chuckled and replied. "Hardly Gaius, my monster is in fact quite powerful. The Tyrant Neptune gains the original attack and defense points of the monsters that I used to summon it; that means that my monster has 4000 attack points by itself, which is increased to 4200 by my field spell card. Furthermore, when my Neptune comes into play, he can copy the abilities of any monster that was used to summon him. I'll have him take on the effects of my Orca, meaning that if I run into any Cannonball Spear Shellfish I can destroy your spell or trap cards."

Mako began to laugh and addressed Gaius. "Do you study Roman mythology at all? Not only is Neptune the name of one of the planets in our solar system, but the planet got its name from ancient mythology. Neptune was the God of the ocean, who ruled over the mighty waves and was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto. How does it feel Gaius, to be face-to-face with a true God? To have to try and defeat something more powerful than the legendary Obelisk the Tormentor? I'm surprised you haven't felt crushed already by the weight of the sea."

Gaius felt his hands shake for a moment before he regained his composure. 'I have to beat something that's in the class of the Egyptian God cards? I never thought I'd have to face something so powerful, let alone before this tournament even began. I know nothing in my deck can even come close to beating it in terms of sheer force, but I might be able to take it down using a combination of spell and trap cards.' As the young man looked toward his opponent, Mako waved him on signaling the end of his turn. Gaius then moved his Swords of Revealing Light card from the field to his graveyard.

'This is it, my final turn,' Gaius thought in despair. 'I need to draw a card that can change the game right now, or it's all over.' He solemnly picked up the top card off of his deck, his eyes closed as he couldn't bear to look at the card that would almost certainly mean his defeat. As he slowly opened his eyes, he found himself smiling wide. 'I can't believe it, this is one of the few cards that would help me turn this around and win the duel.' He glanced at his duel opponent and laughed. "You kept going on about how your monster was stronger than Obelisk the Tormentor, right? But duelists back then never had to deal with cards like these! I play the spell card Overload Fusion."

The young man continued to speak, his voice racing fast with excitement. "Overload Fusion lets me banish from the field or graveyard as many machine monsters as I want, as long as one of them is a Cyber Dragon. In total, I am banishing all nine of my monsters in my graveyard in order to summon my most powerful monster, Chimeratech Overdragon. Chimeratech Overdragon's attack is equal to the number of monsters used to summon it, times 800. That means my creature has 7200 attack points, which is almost twice as much as your monster. Chimeratech can also attack once for each monster that was used in his summon, so I can attack a total of nine times as well. I only need one attack to finish you though, so for my final move of the game I'll attack your Neptune with my Chimeratech Overdragon. You'll take 3200 points of damage, reducing your life points to 0."

Mako began to sputter and flail while checking his cards as Gaius announced his attack. "Uh uh..I activate..no wait..my Neptune..I have nothing to save it. No!" After several seconds the fisherman discarded his monsters and shook his head. "Wow, Gaius. I never thought that my greatest sea creature would be able to be defeated. I'll have to look over my deck before we dock and try to fix the holes in my ship that this duel revealed to me. Thank you for a truly epic duel, my friend. As per our agreement, I won't ask you to stay with me, and your deck strategy shall remain a secret. I hope we both see each other again in the finals."

Gaius nodded and extended his hand to shake Mako's. "Thank you, Mako. I hope you do well too. I also hope you know there are no hard feelings, I just don't want to have to look after someone else besides Kira and I in case anything happens. I can only hope you understand."

Mako smiled as he returned the handshake. "Of course, it's always best that one only swim in the seas that one knows best. It's getting late so it's time I put in to bed. If you want to talk at all tomorrow morning before we disembark, feel free to come over if you see me out and about." The fisherman got up from the table and began to walk back towards the sleeping cabin.

The young man looked at his watch and concurred. "Yeah, I didn't notice what time it was either. We should both go to bed as well. But before then I'll change parts of my deck around. I only have so much time to change things around before the actual tournament begins." He looked at his friend and smiled. "I bet you're glad I won, you didn't seem to be looking forward to going out with Mako. For a while it was really touch and go, though. I need to work on my dueling technique if I hope to do well in the tournament."

Kira nodded in agreement. "Yeah thanks Gaius, although it was you who almost forced me to go on a date in the first place. I hate when people go on blind dates or are set up on dates by their friends, if you had lost I might not have talked to you for a long while." She slyly smiled and then laughed. "Besides, I don't really think I could get along with him and all of those ocean puns. I guess I'm just not a big fan of sea men." She then turned red when she realized what her statement sounded like and looked away.

Gaius laughed and patted his friend on the back. "Don't worry, I knew what you meant." He then looked in the direction of the sleeping cabin. "Let's get to bed ourselves. We need to be up early if we want to be in top shape for the tournament tomorrow." The two of them walked back into the large sleeping area and laid down on the beds that they had staked out earlier. Gaius spent an hour going over his deck in his mind, making note of what cards to change before the tournament. 'Tomorrow it all begins,' he thought hopefully. 'I finally have a real chance to go against the best of the best, to prove to everyone what I can really do.' As he drifted off to sleep, he had no way of knowing what would occur once he reached the island.