Mai is gaping at the cards in front of her, still unable to believe that this worthless meatbag has three copies of the whole Exodia in his deck. Where did he find them? She has opened countless booster packs in her life, yet she never even managed to pull out a single Exodia card. That guy must have done something illegitimate, that's for sure. Unfortunately, she cannot prove anything.

And so, there is only one thing that can get her out of this: to win before that asshole can gather all pieces of Exodia in his hand. Easier said than done. By counting the number of pieces now that she's browsing through his deck, Mai can tell that he already has four of them. He's missing only the left arm.

'Quit browsing through my deck already,' the Seeker snaps, annoyed and impatient. 'I remind you that, according to the rules, you have only five minutes to think of your move.'

Darn, unfortunately, that jerk is right. Well, she can still take one monster card from his deck anyway and Exodia pieces count as monster cards, so let that monster be one of the three copies of the Left Arm of the Forbidden One; to Mai, it's useless, but, by taking one of the three, at least she will reduce the chances of that creep drawing one of them.

'I select the Left Arm of the Forbidden One,' Mai declares, showing the aforementioned card to the Seeker and returning his deck to him.

'It figures,' the Seeker inwardly growls. It's his turn. Darn, now that there are only two left arms left in his deck, it will be harder to draw that card.

The Seeker draws, with Mai gulping, trying to hide her trepidation. The card he drew is 'Exodia the Forbidden One', in other words, Exodia's head, a copy of which he already had in his hand. 'Curses,' he whispers.

He guesses all he can do this turn is further strengthen his defense. 'I play the Giant Soldier of Stone (1300/2000) in defense mode.'

The stone golem that Yugi used to play too, during the Duelist Kingdom tournament, appears on the field and kneels down into a defensive position.

'My turn,' Mai draws. Her new card is the Elegant Egotist. The girl smiles amid her anxiety. This can help.

'I play the Elegant Egotist,' she subsequently activates the spell card she just drew, which causes the Cyber Harpy to split into three duplicates, all of which have the same ATK and DEF stats as the original one.

'I cannot attack the same turn I play the Elegant Egotist,' Mai thinks. 'But, when there are three Harpies on the field, they can perform the Triangle Ecstasy Spark attack, which is 2700 points strong, in other words, strong enough to destroy the Gear Golem (2200 DEF). Next turn, I'll destroy his defenses.'

The Seeker, who is aware of the above, mumbles curses. If that gal manages to go through his defenses before he draws the last piece of Exodia, he's done for.

With a bead of sweat on his cheek, he draws his next card and looks at it. He grins. 'This will greatly help,' he thinks.

'Dark Door,' he says out loud, subsequently activating the continuous spell card he just drew. It depicts the shady figure of a monster in front of a green portal. 'As long as it is on the field, neither of us can attack with more than one monster per turn. Of course, I'm totally cool with that, since I didn't intend to attack anyway, but I think, on your part, it is going to be pretty troublesome, MHAHAHA...'

Mai gasps, a bead of sweat on her silky forehead. What is she going to do now? To perform the Triangle Ecstasy Spark attack, the three Harpies have to attack simultaneously, which is impossible with this stupid spell card on the field. And one Harpy isn't strong enough to destroy the Gear Golem by herself. To make matters worse, she doesn't have in her hand any equip spell cards that can power up her Harpies or a Harpy Feather Duster, which could rid her of that Dark Door shit. Now that bastard can gutlessly hide behind his defenses until he draws the last piece of Exodia, which will be the end of her!

And who knows when that will happen? It might happen on the next turn!

'My... turn,' Mai stutters and draws her next card. She looks at it. Darn, still nothing that can help her right now. But she guesses she might as well destroy at least the Giant Soldier of Stone.

'Cyber Harpy, attack the Giant Soldier.'

With a crack of her whip, the female monster destroys the stone golem. However, the Gear Golem is still there, preventing Mai from touching the opponent's remaining life points.

'My turn,' the Seeker draws and looks at his card. He grins. Not bad!

'I summon the Rockstone Warrior (1800/1600) in defense mode.'

Another stone golem appears on the field. Its head and limbs are dark brown, its torso is purple and its eyes are light red. The aforementioned monster kneels down into a defensive position.

'Even if this monster gets destroyed,' the Seeker thinks, satisfied, 'it will leave behind two tokens, which means I will have even more monsters to protect my life points with!'

Trying to repress a triumphant laugh, the male duelist glances at his deck. Thanks to the special contact lenses he's wearing, he can see that the next card he will draw is exactly what he needs: the Left Arm of the Forbidden One! The next turn, he wins!

Mai is looking at the grinning opponent across from her. She doesn't know why, but, from his expression, she can tell that he somehow knows already that, next turn, he's going to draw the last piece of Exodia. Even if she draws the Harpy's Feather Duster this turn and gets rid of the Dark Door, it is too late; the opponent's defenses are too many by now.

Joey pushes through the crowd in order to get a better view of the duel taking place. Some grunts, some struggles, some complaints and some apologies later, he manages to make his way through the people gathered around and has a look. One of the two duelists, as we said earlier, is Rex Raptor. The other one is a boy with middle length, greenish hair and eyes the same color. He's wearing a pink shirt and yellow trousers.

'Hey, who is that guy?' Joey asks one of the people around.

'Don't you know him?' the nameless person answers. 'He's Espa Roba, the psychic duelist.'

'Psychic?' Joey raises an eyebrow, scratching his head.

'Yeah. He has psychic powers,' the other person answers. And, with a chuckle of amusement, he adds, 'Or at least that's what he claims. Though, in any case, this doesn't seem to have helped him a lot in this duel so far.'

Joey looks towards the field. Wow. Rex is kicking ass. Espa is sweating. Poor boy.

'ULTIMATE TYRANNO, ATTACK,' the hooded finalist of the Japanese championship yells, unnecessarily pointing a finger.

On his command, the gargantuan dinosaur on his field attacks Jinzo, the monster on Espa's field. The Tyranno bites Jinzo's head while clawing at him. Jinzo is destroyed and Espa's life points are reduced to zero.

'NO!' the green haired boy cries. 'I'm Espa Roba, I can read minds. There is no way I can lose. There has to be some mistake.'

Unmoved, Rex walks over to him and opens his hand, thus demanding for his prize: the locator card as well as the rarest card of Espa Roba. With tears in his eyes, the other boy hands them over.

Rex looks at Jinzo. 'This card isn't suitable for my dinosaur themed deck,' he comments. 'But I guess it's better than nothing.'

Joey catches himself feeling sorry for the other boy, whom he doesn't even know.

Mai is looking at the field, with an expression of desperation.

The Seeker is chuckling, already celebrating his victory.

Mai is aware that, essentially, this is her last turn. Either she finds a way to miraculously reduce her opponent's life points to zero this turn or she kisses this tournament goodbye.

Heh. Who could imagine? She, the Duel Queen, the grand favourite to win this tournament, will be the first to be eliminated after all. With a smile of despair, the girl closes her eyes and shakes her head.

Suddenly, she opens them wide, with an expression of determination. 'NO!' she inwardly yells. 'I am the fucking Duel Queen! And a queen never abandons her throne before they drag her to the gallows kicking and screaming!'

And now that she said the word 'queen' so many times, she just realized that there is a monster that can save her. She only needs to draw the right card. NOW!

Well, if there is one person that can draw the right card at the right moment, that person is definitely Her Majesty, Mai Valentine!

'Draw,' she cries haughtily, with the Seeker surprised at her renewed determination.

'I play the ritual spell card Ritual of the Harpies' Court.' (ORIGINAL CARD)

Mai places the aforementioned card on the disk. It depicts three Harpies kneeling around a pot which green steam is coming out of.

The Seeker gasps.

'As opposed to most ritual spell cards, this one does not require me to sacrifice monsters,' Mai explains. 'Having three Harpies on the field is enough. Those three Harpies, the Harpies of the Court, shall conduct the ceremony, chanting the magic words that shall summon their celestial queen.'

In the meantime, the three Cyber Harpies have knelt around a pot that has appeared on the field (the same that is depicted on the card) and begun chanting, with their eyes closed.

Soon, green steam starts coming out of the pot. The steam eventually coalesces into a new monster. 'Here she comes, THE HARPY CELESTIAL MONARCH!' Mai cries triumphantly. (ORIGINAL RITUAL MONSTER)

The new Harpy monster is taller than the other three Harpies, who respectfully bow around their queen. She's wearing a golden, shiny crown and the color of her skin is much more human than that of her subjects. She has 2900 ATK points and 2100 DEF points.

The Seeker, who has started recovering from all that, smiles. 'Hah. It doesn't matter how much your lady birds worship their so called queen,' he scoffs. 'I remind you that you can attack with only one monster per turn and I have enough defensive monsters on the field to hold you off.'

'One attack is all I need,' Mai snaps her fingers with a wink. 'You see, as much as her subjects worship her, Her Majesty is pretty humble herself. She hates seeing people kneeling before her.'

The Harpy Celestial Monarch flips her red hair shyly, as if to make Mai's point.

The Seeker gulps. Now he has a bad feeling. 'Wha... what do you mean?'

'I mean that your monsters, too, are kneeling right now, being in defense position and all,' Mai explains. 'And when all monsters on your field are in defense mode, the Harpy Celestial Monarch can attack you directly!'

'SAY WHAT NOW?' the freaky duelist's eyes bulge in a comical manner.

'You overdid it with hiding and playing safe, dude,' Mai yells. 'And the Queen of the Harpies does not like gutless beings like you. YOUR MAJESTY, DIRECT ATTACK!'

With a howl, the female monster takes off, flies above all monsters on the field and charges at the player, striking him with her claws and reducing his life points to zero.

The Rare Hunter falls on his back, with his arms spread. The holograms disappear.

The gal walks over to the fallen opponent, in a sexy manner. 'Take back your stupid Exodia card,' she tosses the left arm she took earlier thanks to the effect of the Amazoness Chainmaster. And, with a dismissive gesture, she adds, 'Don't worry. I won't take any card from you, even though I have the right to do so according to the Battle City rules. I don't want any card from your pathetic deck.'

Breathing heavily, the Seeker raises his eyes to her and grins like a madman. 'There are many more Rare Hunters, Valentine,' he says. 'Mark my words, they will avenge me.'

'Just give me your locator card and get the hell out of this tournament,' Mai sighs, not scared at all.