Tea was freezing to death in this arctic tundra with this penguin beating on her with constant cheap blows that anticipate her own moves. Now she was frozen in a block of ice that was making her heart jump every other irregular beat. The penguin avatar was just laughing and jumping around like an insane little gremlin and all her deckmaster could muster up was words of hope and encouragement as she was feeling her consciousness fading from the body's natural reaction to hypothermia. Her deck master tried to call out to her and all it was registered as was muffled pleas. Unknown to her; Yugi was pounding away at the ice wall and nothing was working for him as he was just desperately trying to save his friends. He could only cry out as his friend was blacking out and losing her free will along with her free will forever to a creepy old man. Everything was about to fade when in the secluded darkness of her own mind a voice spoke to her.
"Jesus, you old school duelists are so fucking painful to watch. Snail races would be more entertaining than watching this garbage."
Despite the crude insults echoing to her she could feel something reaching out to her from the dark.
"So I guess it's my turn then. All you have to do is commit…"
What does that even mean? Is it like how Yugi commit's to Yami? She was losing out on options since now it was now or never cause she was close to just blacking out. All there was in her head was the desire to live. Her friends, her family, all of it was gone. She just wanted to be alive and this voice was offering it!
"... Alright. Let me take care of things then."
From outside a sudden burst of light that enveloped Tea and her deck master sprung back and confused both Crump and Yugi. The light went off for about thirty seconds and began to shrink after that. In the center of the light pillar a young man with black hair was cradling tea who was unconscious in his arms. His hair was short and cropped; he was masculine but other than that had no other unique features. He was in a white crew cut tee and chinos. His left arm had a rather random black line tattoo running down the outer side of it and his shoes were just black athletic wear. He was closer to twenty five than the age of fifteen that Tea was. He placed her down for the dark magician to care for her as he pulled out a black device from his pocket. It looked to be portable and handheld by Crump's observations and suddenly the new player on the field swung the device to his right and it extended itself. It was now as wide as his forearm plus a few inches and suddenly the new player swung the extended piece of flat black glass across the front of his forearm and the curious artifact sparked as it just caught itself hovering in front of the tattoo on the stranger's arm. The slat of black glass widened suddenly and when it did it looked like sparks flew out of it just as it did. On the surface of the now much wider slab of black glass a voice came out and colorful words accompanied the announcement of the strange device.
"Duel Mode Active. AR field, standby."
There was a sudden pulse from the device that could have been felt but not seen. From the thin device card's popped out the end closer to his hand and grasping the five cards he had his hand and was ready to start where Tea left off.
"Player penalty. Substitution ruling activated."
From that announcement the new player lost life points to match the value that Tea was at when she lost consciousness. He was now at seven hundred and fifty life points as the stout penguin just started laughing at the new player.
"Hahahahaha! You're just a new fish for me to pluck out of the water! What could you possibly do with just seven hundred and fifty lifepoints?! I have a monster to protect my life points and you have nothing on the field! Just try and do something!"
The newest opponent to Crump just looked at the penguin like he was stupid and responded.
"With pleasure…"
His duel disc spat out a card from the end that the hand came from and he grasped the ejected card.
"My turn, DRAW!"
It was like he was struck down by thunder as the pressure from his new opponent's draw sent him sprawling onto his back from the air pressure alone. Yugi, who was kept behind a frozen wall of ice and forced to watch as an audience member, was on his back as the draw destroyed the ice wall that separated him and Tea. As he tried to get up the Pharaoh's spirit spoke once more.
"Be careful with this one, Yugi. I don't sense any hesitation or fear from him."
"What do you mean, Pharaoh?"
The spirit within was hesitant to answer as he gave Yugi his desired answer.
"... I can't see the limit of his power. It's like I'm looking up at the sky; of looking down at the ocean from above. I can't fathom the power he has in his deck."
All Yugi could do was feel a chill of foreboding as the unknown character drew into his turn. The new player just added the card to his hand and took a second to observe his possibilities. Crump wanted to say something witty when the stranger made his move.
"I activate Drytron Delta Altais's effect! I discard Drytron Alpha Thuban to the graveyard to summon this monster in defense mode!"
A new monster that looked to be a sleipnir with more horse-like features came shooting down from a falling star from above. The Penguin could only laugh as Yugi realized something rather obvious to the monster's battle position.
"Hahaha! You fool! Your monster has zero defense! Why on earth would you summon such a weak monster in defense mode?"
The new player was lacking in patience and the glare he shot to the ignorant crump was close enough to actually burning a hole into his face.
"You laugh now; but for you, this is the end!"
A look of confusion on the penguin's face as the mysterious duelist continued his turn.
"I activate Delta's effect! When it's summoned by its own effect I can reveal a ritual monster in my hand to draw an additional card from my deck! I reveal Nekroz of Clausolas to draw an additional card!"
The new draw wasn't as powerful as the first, but still sent enough force to cause the others to stumble a bit. The new car was added to his hand and the turn continued.
"I activate the effect of Drytron Gamma Eltanin! I tribute my Delta on the field to special summon this monster!"
He swiped the card onto his floating duel disk and the first monster shattered into dazzling light to then reform into a dragon creature with massive jet engines on it's back. A thunderous roar was let loose, but again it was in defense mode.
"Eltanin's effect activates! When summoned by its own effect I can special summon another drytron monster from the grave! Come back, Altais!"
The cybernetic monster launched up into space and returned with the monster in its arms. It dropped Altais and from the water the quadruped rose up again in attack mode. The penguin again laughed at the difference of numbers; but Yugi and the millennium spirit could sense that something was coming.
"Hahaha, You're even dumber than you look! My Defender Iceberg still has four hundred and fifty more defense points than that stupid horse! Next turn, my torpedo will sink you to the frozen depths!"
"I already told you; there won't be a next turn for you!"
"What?"
There was a sinking sensation for both the bystander and the opponent to this stranger in this duel; pun not intended. Yugi was almost scared and the puzzle spirit spoke his mind with the host.
"Yugi; something is very wrong here. We've faced many strong opponents; even beared witness to others, but this…"
"Yeah. It's like nothing we've seen so far. It's almost like being back in that shadow game; it's not painful, but I can't help but feel so… Helpless."
The millennium spirit just nodded and agreed that whoever this is was beyond anything they were prepared for at the moment.
"I activate the ritual spell, Meteonis Drytron! By sending my two monsters on the field I can special summon a Drytron ritual monster from my hand!"
The amount of pressure Crump was feeling was stifling. He took a look at the monsters and saw that something still didn't add up for him.
"B-but how? How can you finish the duel with a level two monster? Ritual summons add up the numbers of the monster's level needed to summon it!"
It was true; so far the only two monsters for the ritual summon were two level one monsters.
"Drytron ritual monsters aren't summoned by the total of monster levels; they're summoned based on the attack points added up to make up their own!"
This was quite the shocking revelation for everyone watching. Not only was this unheard of for the game of duel monsters; but now the possibility of a four thousand attack monster coming out would be something that would completely throw the game into his favor. Above the sky darkened and the clouds were pushed away as the two monsters on his side of the field began to break down into shining stars and shoot themselves into the sky. They all shot to different points above and formed stars that began lighting up and connecting to one another like a constellation.
"Purveyor of justice and destruction across the eternal universe; take up your arms and serve me as my guiding light against the feeble darkness that dares tread in my path…"
Slowly out of the sky, starlight began to shoot down from the sky and gathered above the summoner's outstretched hand far above him in the sky. The light gathered one by one and soon the shape of a monster was coming forth. It was a majestic bipedal dragon that had two pairs of arms. The upper arms wielded elegant and massive swords while the lower pair hefted massive shields with open red reactor cores in the center of them. His wings were the last thing to come to shape and it was like they were formed from two halves of the divine wheel itself. The beast shone and descended in a column of divine light and let out a roar that was like listening to a supernova going critical. The monster that was to end the duel this turn was here; and Crump was about to lose more than just the duel.
"Now come forth and make my enemies witness the infinite power of the universe collide in front of them! Fight for me once again; Drytron Meteonis Draconids!"
Yugi looked at the monster in awe and felt so small in comparison to how majestic that creature was. The pharaoh was just as speechless at the sight of that monster. He would often look up at the night sky and gaze at the stars, thinking to himself that sometimes he felt like everything he was fighting for still felt small against the infinite galaxy above. A universe that wouldn't notice or care if he were to succeed or fail his life's mission. A feeling he was getting familiar with right now as he just gawked at the monster.
"B-b-b-but I still have Iceberg! You still need to attack and even if you destroy it in battle I can still use Torpedo Penguin next turn and end this! So HA!"
He could still win this! He still could taste victory; this punk was all feather and no fin after all. Yugi and the pharaoh knew better and could guess this really was the end for Crump.
"I activate Draco's effect! By banishing monsters in my graveyard that add up to two or four thousand attack points; I can destroy monster's on your side of the field up to the amount of attack points added up divided by two thousand!"
Crump was panicking now. There were only two monsters in his opponent's graveyard; but both had two thousand attack points each. He would only need to get rid of one to destroy his Defender Iceberg.
"You're an accountant; I think you can do the math yourself… I banish Eltanin from the graveyard to destroy your Defender Iceberg!"
From the star formations still shining above starlight began streaming down into the right hand shield of the monster into the opening in the center. A high pitched sound was getting louder and louder as the amount of power was building and glowing bright gold. Soon it was done charging and the shield was aimed right at the large ice titan on Crumps field.
"Go, Draconids! Cataclysmic End!"
A massive beam of golden energy completely enveloped the defender and evaporated it in an instant. Crump was flung back and sent crashing into the ice behind him. He tried to stand again but was beaten badly from being thrown with so much force. He could only watch as the next part of the punishment came.
"Battle phase. I attack you directly with Draconids…"
The monster's massive swords began glowing up the centers and spreading its wings; it was prepared to wipe out Crump with one blow. Crump attempted to plead for his life as he knew this was the end.
"... W-wai… Ple…"
"End it! Macrocosm Fissure!"
The mighty dragon warrior swooped down and scissored the small penguin with two simultaneous swings of its galactically powerful weapons. The attack actually split the ocean below as well as part of the ice continent to it's right. For a moment after the attack ended you could see an endless open chasm into the depths of the sea. It took a moment for reality to catch up and the water as well as the land mass of ice came crashing down onto itself. The dragon protected everyone there with another slash of one of it's swords to dissipate the massive wave that was formed from the final attack. The monster was about to disappear when it did the most curious thing. It turned to its master and as it was breaking back down to starlight and floated back up to space; it crossed it's right upper arm across it's chest and bowed it's head to him. It held this pose to the last second and the duelist in control smiled and nodded in approval.
"You served me well, yet again. Thank you."
Finally it was all over and the duelist returned his duel disk now folded up again to a handheld device and back into his right pocket. For now he had a more immediate concern on checking Tea to see if she was okay. He picked her up from the shoulders tenderly and was cradling her until she came to and saw what was basically a stranger helping her up.
"Ugh… Who… Who are you?"
"Me? Just a good samaritan."
She came to and was able to wobble to her feet with the young man's help.
"Whoa, easy now. Just take it slow and get your bearings straight."
There was some difficulty getting her balance but she managed to get it back eventually.
"Thank you… Whoever you are. Also, what happened to that creepy penguin?"
She pointed at the now vacant space in the water where the iceberg where her opponent was had vanished from. She thought she was still a little out of it as she thought that the continent of ice looked a bit different from before. She was pulled out of asking further questions by the stranger.
"Just call me Issac. Don't have much going for last names so just Issac is good."
He was a rather funny guy. Not laugh out loud funny; just odd funny since it seemed he came out of nowhere and saved her when she lost consciousness. He seemed friendly enough as he offered her his hand in a greeting and she returned it out of politeness. Firm grip and far warmer than her own frigid fingers. She was almost reluctant to let go as the painful stinging cold was just about gone when he let go of her hand. He looked over to a cave on the side of the iceberg and waved to the young boy who just watched everything happen just now.
"Hey! She's fine! Friend of yours?" He pointed the last question at tea and turning around she was elated to see a familiar face after everything she went through. She waved to Yugi as well, to which he returned. Just as much as he was happy to see Tea safe, he and the pharaoh were very suspicious and a bit frightened of this new ally that came out of nowhere. Before heading over to reunite they discussed their suspicions of the stranger.
"Pharaoh. What do you think?"
"It seems that we can trust him for now, at the least he saved Tea and we can't ignore that. I would be on guard just a little, Yugi; never have I seen such power and destruction from a single duelist like him."
They ended their inner dialogue and just accepted that this new face was there to help for now.