Dueling Trigger Finger

by draconichero21

Worlds collide as a twisted tale interlocking the fates of both universes begins with the retelling of Battle City, but will cover the wide expanse of the plot of both series. Rated M due to profanity, Junko, sexual themes, Junko, murder, Junko, nightmarish imagery, and did I mention Junko?

82. The Battle for Everyone's Souls Part 1

(A/N: I have nothing to say. Let's get to it!)

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Blue-Eyes White Dragon's White Lightning soared towards Orichalcos Orphayos and slammed straight into it, causing a bright flash of lightning. Then, when the dust settled, a big red 269 seemed to jump out of Orphayos' chest and the monster looked no worse for wear.

"What?" Kaiba gasped.

"Hold on, what's going on here?" Joey demanded to know.

"Very impressive. Blue-Eyes White Dragon is truly a remarkable beast. But can it match the vast power of Orphayos?" Dartz wondered, explaining nothing. With a snap of his fingers, Orphayos unleashed what appeared to be sound waves emanating from the perimeter of its body. The waves launched forward with a turquoise-colored electric ring around them and caused Blue-Eyes White Dragon to howl in pain as a big red 569 appeared to jump out of its head.

"Wait a sec! I get it! That's like in games where you take a chunk out of an enemy's health bar!" Hajime exclaimed.

"Impossible! How could your monster deal more damage than my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba exclaimed.

"My dear Kaiba, are you unfamiliar with bosses in your so-called games?" Dartz asked.

"A boss?" Kaiba gasped.

"Indeed. Make no mistake. The monsters birthed by the Orichalcos are far beyond any monster you could conceivably create."

"I've heard enough!" Kaiba exclaimed. "There's no way a monster could be more powerful than my Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Attack again!"

Blue Eyes' white lightning barreled towards Orphayos, this time dealing 272 damage. However, Orphayos' retaliated with its own attack for another 539 damage.

"Kaiba! You'll never defeat this monster alone," Yami stated. "We must work together! I call upon my ever-faithful companion, Dark Magician!"

Yami's Dark Magician appeared in the air above him and then somersaulted forward to land in front of him. "Dark Magic Attack!" Yami bellowed as everything went photo negative, leading Dark Magician to deal 250 damage flat to Orphayos.

"I don't need your help, Yugi!" Kaiba exclaimed.

"Whether you want it or not, you're getting it," Hajime said, stepping up. "I summon to the field Infernal Flame Emperor!" A massive pyro-type monster appeared at Hajime's side. Since he'd first obtained it from Edan the Flame, the most he'd ever used the card for was fusion fodder for Blazing Fenix or Ignition Beast Volcannon. That changed now. "Attack with Emperor's Flaming Burst!" A massive fireball shot towards Orphayos, dealing 273 points of damage.

"Hajime's right," Yukizome said, getting out her deck. "We've all been led here because of that bastard. And in particular, I'm not going to hold anything back! Come on out, Dogoran!"

Yukizome's massive kaiju appeared on the battlefield with an intense roar.

"Burn it! Burn it now!" Yukizome shouted as powerful flames shot out of Dogoran, raining down fiery hell on Orphayos, leaving it with 504 points of damage.

"More powerful than Blue-Eyes? But they have the same attack points!" Kaiba exclaimed.

"Perhaps the rules of Duel Monsters do not apply to this game. Each monster must have its own unique traits that may boost its attack or defense," Yami theorized.

"You're absolutely correct about that, Pharaoh. But make no mistake Seto Kaiba, your Blue-Eyes is still among the most powerful creatures in my game. But still…"

Orphayos unleashed another massive attack wave that dealt 526 damage to Dark Magician, 730 damage to Infernal Flame Emperor, 363 damage to Dogoran, and 532 damage to Blue-Eyes, destroying it.

"Blue-Eyes!" Kaiba exclaimed, jaw dropping at the sight of his monster destroyed. He then growled at Dartz. "What have you done?" Kaiba then felt intense pain, dropping to one knee.

"Kaiba!" Yukizome exclaimed.

"Are you all right?" Yami asked him.

"Grrr, I'm fine."

"Your monster only had so many life points of its own and now that it's gone, you've taken damage directly to your soul."

Kaiba got up. "I see. So that's how the game is played." He seemed more amused than angry. "In that case, I'll summon another Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba's Blue-Eyes emerged with a roar. "Attack with White Lightning!"

Orphayos was hit for another 252 damage as Blue-Eyes attack barreled into it with all the strength and force of a rail cannon.

"If I'm not mistaken, each of us can summon one monster at a time," Kaiba stated. "We can use our turns to use one spell card. Trap cards have limited effective usage and when our souls run out, that's it. Game over."

"Fabulous. You've managed to figure out all of the rules just like that," Dartz said. "Now that we know the rules, why don't the rest of the bystanders join in? Then we can have a sporting good game." Dartz then chuckled.

"You don't gotta tell me twice. Let's go! Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Joey's Red-Eyes stormed to the field with its ear-piercing screech. "Attack Orphayos! Inferno Fire Blast!"

Red-Eyes' attack slammed into Orphayos dealing 242 damage.

"I call upon Amazoness Queen!" Mai exclaimed as a muscular woman with a large short sword appeared. "Attack!"

Mai's monster charged forward and slashed Orphayos down the center with its blade dealing 263 damage.

"And I shall summon Darklord Ixchel!" Sonia exclaimed. The four-winged fallen angel appeared behind Sonia, floating by its own power. "Blast Orphayos now! Use your Darklord Luminary Blast!"

Ixchel gathered energy above its head and focused it into a singular, bright yellow beam that seared into Orphayos, dealing 263 damage. Orphayos then fell forward and crumbled into dust.

"Yeah! You got him!" Joey exclaimed.

Dartz, however, looked the least bit unfazed.

"Impressive. You managed to defeat the weakest monster in my hoarde."

"Weakest monster? And it had roughly 2,500 life points?" Kaiba had been keeping track.

"I see you're good at math, Seto Kaiba," Dartz said. "Now then, ladies and gentlemen. Shall we begin this battle rightfully? I'm so looking forward to awakening the Great Leviathan. And now that you're all in the game, your souls are on the line. If any of you fall in battle, you will become one with the great beast." Dartz held up his thumb and middle finger together. "Try to entertain me, will you?" He snapped his fingers as a new monster emerged.

"I call upon your dark powers, Orichalcos Eirsaynay!"

A monster emerged in a shower of black feathers, appropriate given the massive black wings on its back. Its body was humanoid in shape. The monster had sharp legs like ice skates with long, claw-like fingernails. Its body was green like the color of the Orichalcos like it was wearing a fashionable suit pants and a jacket. It had an iron mask over its face that showed an eerie jack-o-lantern like glow of horrific eyes and a mouth with no nose. However, the glow was bright green just like its body. It had two iron-like devilish horns on either side of its head, jutting outward that made it look like it would be overcompensating if shown next to Pythagoras. Its chest plate was black like it was wearing body armor and it had a halo floating above its head in the shape of the Seal of Orichalcos. Green flames shot upward above its mask as though no head was behind it, just eerie green fire.

"Now," Dartz said. "Our battle can truly begin. Eirsaynay," Dartz said with a cruel smirk. "Kill them."

With an otherworldy screech emitting from its being as its glowing mouth stretched over its mask, Eirsaynay bent its arms slightly behind its back before creating a glowing flame in its palm, which it then used to completely engulf Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Confused and in pain, the dragon howled.

"Red-Eyes!" Joey exclaimed. The damage was insane 732.

"What power," Kaiba gasped.

"The cleansing dark flames of Eirsaynay are dangerous indeed. How will you attempt to conquer such a foe I wonder," Dartz chuckled.

"The same way I conquer most of my problems," Kaiba stated. "With my Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Attack!"

Blue-Eyes roared and blasted Eirsaynay's body with its White Lightning. The damage came out to only 232.

"What? Weaker than before?" Kaiba gasped.

Dartz only smirked.

"Kaiba, relax. You're not alone," Yami said. "It's my turn now." He thumbed through his deck for a magic card. "I activate Book of Secret Arts, empowering my Dark Magician. Now attack, Dark Magic Attack!"

Dark Magician's attack barreled into Eirsaynay. The resulting damage was only 140. "What?!"

Dartz shook his head. "Tsk. Tsk. Pharaoh. My monster is a creature of darkness much like yours. However, unlike Wheeler's Red-Eyes, mine has a resistance to darkness based attacks."

"Then let's see how it likes fire!" Hajime exclaimed. "Go! Infernal Flame Emperor!"

The fireball launched towards Eirsaynay, but only did 123 damage. Hajime bit his thumbnail. "Tch, not good."

"I won't let it end like this! Dogoran! Attack!" Yukizome stated.

Dogoran's flame was significantly more impressive, but not by much. It only did 242 damage.

"Red-Eyes, retaliate with Inferno Fire Blast!" Joey exclaimed. The attack hit home on Eirsaynay, dealing 122 damage. "Man, that thing's tough."

"Don't worry, I've got this!" Mai exclaimed. "Amazoness Queen! Take him down!"

Amazoness Queen darted forward with her sword and cut deep into Eirsaynay, leaving it with 452 damage on its body.

"It must have a weakness to physical attacks!" Yami exclaimed, gasping.

"Too late to have realized that," Dartz chuckled. "Your monsters are all darkness or fire based with their attacks except for Miss Valentine. And my monster has 5,000 life points. You will never be able to put a dent in Eirsaynay at the rate you're going, much less kill it. And sad to say that you cannot remove a monster from the field once it has been summoned."

"Then we will just have to put our heads together and form a new strategy. It is only the start of the battle! We shall not lose!" Sonia exclaimed. "Ixchel! Attack!"

Ixchel blasted Eirsaynay with its ray, dealing 266 damage. The power of the darklords truly knew no boundaries.

However, now it was back to Dartz. "Eirsaynay, remove Wheeler's monster from my sight." With a snap of his fingers, Dartz commanded Eirsaynay to attack as Eirsaynay blasted Red-Eyes with a stream of green flame, incinerating Joey's monster.

"Red-Eyes!" Joey exclaimed, dropping to one knee and clutching his chest.

"You all right, Joey?" Yami asked him.

"I'm fine," Joey said, clutching his chest.

"Lucky break for you, Wheeler. When you don't have a monster on the field, you can summon yours and take your turn immediately. And then you still get to have your normal turn later. Isn't that just nice for you?"

"Why do I feel like you're insulting me?" Joey asked.

Kaiba just snickered to himself.

"Joey! Try to summon a monster that doesn't use darkness or fire attacks!" Yami exclaimed.

"Right!" Joey nodded and thumbed through his deck. He had the perfect monster. "I summon to the field my Battleguard King!"

Dartz frowned at the sight of Joey's massive ogre.

"Battleguard King, smash Dartz's monster with your massive ogre club. Attack!"

Battleguard King roared and slammed Eirsaynay over the head with its attack, putting it in the ground. Eirsaynay took a whopping 693 damage.

"Good move, Joey!" Yami exclaimed.

"Well, what do you know? Wheeler's not incompetent for once," Kaiba said blandly.

"Hey!"

Kaiba ignored Joey and focused on Dartz. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack!"

Blue-Eyes attacked with White Lightning just as Eirsaynay got to its feet, dealing 263 damage.

"Hmph. That's more like it."

"My turn!" Yami exclaimed. "Dark Magician! Attack now! Dark Magic attack!"

Dark Magician smacked Eirsaynay with its photo-negative reality bending flash of dark energy and left it with 142 damage.

"My move," Hajime said. He thought about what to do. "Hey, Kaiba. What are the rules on Fusion Monsters?"

"You can fuse up to three times or more if you have a way to recycle magic cards or increase your amount of Polymerizations," Kaiba told him. "But, if you have a monster in play, it has to be able to be used as fusion material or you can't fusion summon."

"Got it," Hajime nodded. I could fuse into Blaze Fenix, but his monster is resistant to fire. I'll just keep up my strategy for now and conserve my fusions. "Infernal Flame Emperor, attack!" Hajime exclaimed.

Infernal Flame Emperor showered Eirsaynay in flames emitted from its hands, dealing 142 damage.

"Back to me again," Yukizome stated. "Dogoran, attack!" With the massive flames from its mouth, Dogoran scorched Eirsaynay for 304 damage.

"My move!" Joey exclaimed. "Go! Battleguard King!" Joey shouted. "Attack!"

However, everyone was surprised when Eirsaynay gracefully dodged to one side with its big black wings.

The word MISS appeared with an ! above Eirsaynay's head.

"Wha…I missed?"

"Your monster is slow and lumbering compared to the speed and grace of Eirsaynay," Dartz stated. "Physical attacks are stronger, but they suffer from problems such as dealing with monsters that have heavy armor or slower monsters having trouble hitting faster ones. Such a shame."

Joey growled. "It's like he makes up the rules as he goes."

"It's okay, Joey. Don't lose heart," Yami told him. "We'll get through this!"

"Yeah, besides, Amazoness Queen has the proper amount of speed to keep dealing damage. Go! Now!" Amazoness Queen charged forward and slashed Eirsaynay, dealing 463 damage.

"Ixchel! Blast it!" Sonia exclaimed as Ixchel's ray seared into Eirsaynay, resulting in another consistently dealt 266 damage.

Dartz snapped his fingers. "Fallen Angel Funeral Pyre."

By rolling its arms back and sticking out its chest, Eirsaynay let loose flames on every monster it was up against. 362 damage to Kaiba's Blue-Eyes, 263 damage to Yami's Dark Magician, 130 damage to Hajime's Infernal Flame Emperor, 63 damage to Dogoran, 490 damage to Joey's Battleguard King, 490 damage to Mai's Amazoness Queen, and 630 damage to Sonia's Ixchel.

"It can attack all of us?" Yami gasped.

"A fair number of monsters have the unique ability in this game to attack all enemies at the cost of reduced damage per enemy. Not all of them also have the ability to unleash single target attacks though, as was the case with Orphayos."

"Hmph, Dartz is desperate," Kaiba scoffed. "He knows his monster is done this turn. He's just trying to scare us. Blue-Eyes!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Attack!"

Blue-Eyes' White Lightning barreled into Dartz's monster and dealt another 263 damage.

"Dark Magician!" Yami exclaimed. "Dark Magic Attack!"

Another 142 damage.

"Infernal Flame Emperor! Flame Emperor's Fireball!"

The fireball burst into Eirsaynay for another 137 damage.

"Keep it up!" Kaiba encouraged. If they could defeat Dartz's monster on Sonia's turn, they could prevent him from having an extra turn.

"Dogoran, attack!" Yukizome exclaimed. Dogoran's powerful flames struck down and dealt only 293 damage.

Things fell to Joey to not screw things up. Unfortunately, yet again, Eirsaynay dodged the lumbering blow of Battleguard King.

"Leave it to Wheeler to make things difficult for everyone," Kaiba growled. They couldn't put out nearly enough damage now to kill Eirsaynay this turn.

Mai's Amazoness Queen only dealt 463 more damage and Ixchel didn't have nearly enough power to deal the 360 damage necessary to finish Eirsaynay off.

"I activate a spell card: Sword of Dark Destruction!" Sonia exclaimed.

A dark sword imbued with dark, lightning-like energy slammed into the ground as Ixchel picked it up.

"This card will not only raise Ixchel's attack power, but give her the option to use a melee attack!" Sonia exclaimed.

"Yeah! That's using your head, Sonia!" Yukizome exclaimed, rocking her hips back and forth, pumping her fists.

"Well, look at that, Nevermind covered your mistake, Wheeler," Kaiba stated.

"But of course," Sonia said, grabbing her bicep as she flexed her arm. "It is a princess' duty to see to the shortcoming of her servants."

"Hey, I'm like, standing right here," Joey stated.

No further attempt to acknowledge Joey was made. Instead, Sonia committed to her attack. "Ixchel! Attack with Sword of Dark Destruction!"

Ixchel flew past Eirsaynay slicing it good for a nasty gash of 472 damage, more than enough to wipe it out. Eirsaynay then faded into ether as Ixchel returned to Sonia's side.

"Impressive and very resourceful," Dartz stated. "Let's see how you deal with this next monster. I call upon your might, come before me Orichalcos Zaiten!"

A massive armored monster with fists as thick as an oversized gorilla and legs, by comparison, as stubby as a stag's. Its body bore white flames over its wrists, shoulders, knees, and thighs and it had a flowing green cape behind it. In its left hand, it carried a massive green sword, shaped like a firebolt. Its body was as green as all the other monsters Dartz had summoned. And, atop its head, it was covered by a kabuto-like samurai helmet. The horns of the helmet were as massively tall as Eirsaynay's horns.

"Zaiten, clear the field a little," Dartz stated.

Raising its firebolt like sword to the sky, Zaiten rained down lightning on all enemy monsters. It dealt 1,100 damage to all enemy monsters, resulting in the destruction of Hajime's Infernal Flame Emperor, Joey's Battleguard King, and Mai's Amazoness Queen. The other monsters remained standing.

"What…power," Hajime gasped.

"Suck it up, you dweebs. Since Dartz destroyed your monsters, you each get a free shot at his monster."

Hajime gave Kaiba a glare. He didn't have to be so rude. Having said that, Hajime knew exactly which monster he was going to summon. "I activate Polymerization! Now I can fuse together Blackland Fire Dragon, Koumouri Dragon and Versago the Destroyer to create Blackland Void Dragon!"

Hajime's Blackland Void Dragon emerged on the battlefield with its terrifying roar that shook the entire room. "Blackland Void Dragon, attack!" Hajime exclaimed. "Void Gale Blast!"

Blackland Void Dragon's attack barreled into Zaiten, dealing a nicely denting 610 damage. The power of the void was truly a terrifying sight to behold.

"I'll jump offa dat!" Joey exclaimed. "I summon to the field none other than Gilford the Lightning!" Joey's impressively powerful warrior monster stood upon the battlefield, sword clenched in hand. "Gilford! Attack!"

Joey's monster slashed at Zaiten, but its sword clinked against Zaiten's only dealing 24 damage.

"What the heck?"

"Remember what I said about melee monsters having to deal with speed and heavy armor?" Dartz questioned. "Apparently, young Wheeler, you were not paying attention."

Joey growled.

Kaiba sighed, massaging his forehead again.

"I guess it's up to me then," Mai said. "I summon Harpie Queen!" Mai knew that she would not last long in this duel. Her typical swarming strategy was useless in a game that forced you to only summon one monster per turn. So, she figured, she'd take advantage of the game's rules. She could deal with a little pain. Her duel with Valon had certainly put her through the ringer. "Harpie Queen, Regal Scratch Slash!"

Harpie Queen barely made a dent in the massive Zaiten either, its attack power barely able to deal 19 damage to the massive behemoth that seemed to match Dogoran in stature.

"Well that was underwhelming," Kaiba said.

"We'll make up for it. It's our time to counterattack!" Yami exclaimed.

"How true," Kaiba chuckled. "Well then," He held up a spell card of his own. "I activate Polymerization, allowing me to fuse together all three of my Blue-Eyes White Dragons!"

"Wait a sec, didn't Dartz destroy one of your Blue-Eyes?" Joey asked.

"Hmph, that doesn't matter in this game," Kaiba stated. "After all, it's not like my Blue-Eyes went anywhere." He held up all three of his prized possessions. "Now, combine your powers to form Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! And since my monster was fused together, all of the damage it accumulated goes away."

Dartz's gaze narrowed at this. If there was one thing more irritating than Kaiba's ego, it was his keen knack for strategy.

"Now then, I'm pretty sure your monster absorbs lightning, but that doesn't matter to my new dragon. After all, its attack is much more powerful from a completely different energy source. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack now with Neutron Blast!"

Blue-Eyes attack barreled forward into Dartz's monster for a devastating 710 damage.

"I'll up the stakes as well!" Yami thundered. "I activate the power of Dark Magic Ritual!" The ritual's altar itself, along with the lit, blue torches, appeared on either side of Dark Magician. "Allowing me to transform my Dark Magician," he said as a purple light covered his Dark Magician, "Into the powerful Magician of Black Chaos!" Thanks to the game's rules, Book of Secret Arts still counted as being attached to Dark Magician. And, just like with Kaiba's Blue-Eyes, the damage Magician of Black Chaos took went away.

"Now, Magician of Black Chaos will take you down!" Yami exclaimed. "Chaos Scepter Blast!"

The dark magic attack barreled into Zaiten, the big orb of darkness shredding into the monster's armor, dealing a nasty 620 damage to it.

"I'll take it from here," Hajime said. "Blackland Void Dragon, attack!"

Blackland Void Dragon roared, dealing 610 damage this time to Zaiten.

"My move," Yukizome stated. "Dogoran! Attack!"

The mad flame kaiju's burning breath singed against Zaiten's armor, burning it for 343 damage.

Joey gnashed his teeth. He knew he and Mai weren't going to be able to do much. Together, the two barely managed to scrape out 35 damage combined.

It was Sonia's turn now. "Ixchel, use your magic attack!" She ordered.

Firing one-handed, Ixchel blasted Zaiten with its power, dealing a solid 439 damage to the being.

"Brace yourselves," Joey said. He and his allies had failed to kill Dartz's monster and now it was his turn.

"Zaiten, unleash your damming thunder and obliterate these fools." Just as before, Zaiten struck all of his targets. However, two monsters did not get hit with the 1,100 damage that had previously ruined everyone. Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon only took 650 damage and Joey's took 0.

"Heh heh, perfect!" Joey exclaimed. "Gilford the Lightning is immune to lightning based attacks. I may be able to only scratch your monster, but you can't touch mine!"

"And my monster has armor against all kinds of attacks," Kaiba stated, so it took reduced damage.

"Speak for yourselves," Mai said as her Harpie Queen hit the ground, dying. She panted a little, but was otherwise fine. "I summon Harpie's Pet Dragon to the field!" The original dragon stormed onto the field with a cry. "Go my dragon, attack with Giga Flare Breath!"

Harpie's Pet Dragon managed to hit for a whopping 240 damage to Zaiten as it blasted a big ol' fireball right into its massive chest.

"It's my turn now," Kaiba stated. "And I'll attack with Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Neutron Blast!"

Blue-Eyes blasted Dartz's monster for 693 damage.

"My move!" Yami exclaimed. "And I'll use the power of Magician of Black Chaos to deal more damage to your monster!" Magician of Black Chaos hit Zaiten with tiny blasts of black magic emitted from its scepter. The resulting attack managed to get a critical hit of 1,469 damage.

"Oh yeah, I forgot those were in this game," Kaiba chuckled.

"How do they work?" Hajime asked.

"They're random," Dartz stated. "And they can only activate if the monster your attacking has no inherent defenses against the attack being made against it. Your chances are also lowered if your monster normally does set damage, like your dragon, Hajime."

"Well then, I'll just have to hope my luck is good enough!" Hajime exclaimed. "Blackland Void Dragon, attack!"

Unfortunately, the streak didn't hold and Hajime only dealt Blackland's set 610 damage.

"How much more damage can it take?" Joey wondered.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess ten thousand," Hajime said. "And I have a bad feeling about what awaits us later on."

Mai gulped. 10,000 now? And what awaited them down the line? Zaiten was already tough enough as it was.

"We'll just have to push through," Yukizome stated. "Dogoran, attack!"

Dogoran's massive flames burned into Zaiten for another 304 damage.

Joey's Gilford only managed to hit for 24 damage, but Mai more than made up for it by hitting for another 240 damage.

It was Sonia's turn then and Ixchel struck home another solid hit for 399 damage.

And now it was back to Dartz. Predictably, he made lightning rain down on all of the monsters. The only one not to survive the blast unscathed was Sonia's Ixchel. Dropping to her knees in pain, Sonia clutched at her chest, gasping and wheezing.

"Sonia! Are you okay?" Yukizome asked her.

Sonia pushed herself to her feet. "I'm fine," she stated. "I will not be deterred! Hajime, do you truly believe that Zaiten only has 10,000 life points."

Hajime thought about it for a minute. "I can't say I can guarantee that, but I'd say it sounds like a reasonable deduction. In fact, I believe the life points of Dartz's monsters will continue to double until this battle is over."

"What makes you say that?" Joey asked.

Hajime held up the Horn of Pythagoras and tapped the side of his skull. "The Ancient Atlantean Knowledge imbued to me by Pythagoras. Pythagoras was a sorcerer with a gifted mind for math, science and magic."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. Oh please, as if Hajime actually was communicating with some ancient, dead wizard.

"Then, I shall put my faith in all of you, I summon to the field Victoria!" As she had used it in her battle with Gundham, once more Victoria's glorious presence shone unto the battlefield.

"Victoria has the power to command dragons," Sonia stated. "So, in exchange for some of her own life force, I can have all dragons on the battlefield attack instead of her! Now, go! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Blackland Void Dragon, and Harpie's Pet Dragon! Attack Dartz now!"

The three dragons opened their mouths and unleashed a nasty blast upon Dartz, crippling his Zaiten for a combined total of 1,570 damage.

"All right, Sonia!" Yami exclaimed, eyes wide with surprise, but internally never happier to see such a move.

"And since that was merely my summoned move, it is time for Kaiba to attack again!" Sonia declared.

"Don't mind if I do," Kaiba chuckled. "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack now with Neutron Blast!"

Dartz's monster got wrecked for 593 damage. The changing of turns passed to Yami.

"Magician of Black Chaos, attack now, Chaos Scepter Blast!"

Magician of Black Chaos' attack hit home, completely blowing up Zaiten, crumbling it to dust!

"Aw, yeah! That'll show 'em!" Joey exclaimed.

Dartz smirked. "So you've defeated three beings of the Orichalcos. Quite impressive. Do not celebrate prematurely, for I now summon the next monster in my band of soldiers!" Dartz held his hand over the ground, palm facing down. "Execute these fools with your merciless frost," Dartz commanded. "Come before me, Orichalcos Artowmayseeuh!"

A 10-foot tall marionette with spiky gold armor covering its hips and shoulders and a green skirt going down to its nice, long legs, covered with green boots appeared on the battlefield. It held a long, spiky sword whip in its left hand and was dressed in a green corset and had a green tengu mask upon its face.

"Artowmayseeuh, you know what to do," Dartz stated.

Unfurling her whip, Artowmayseeuh smacked Dogoran in the chest, putting it on ice and then the ice shattered. The whip unfurled again, hitting Mai's monster and also causing it to shatter. Mai and Yukizome both took damage directly to their soul. The whip unfurled one more time, striking Yami's Magician of Black Chaos for 462 damage. And, much to everyone's horror, his monster was frozen solid in a block of ice.

"What's this?" Yami gasped.

"Artowmayseeuh's damage output may not be as high as Eirsaynay's or Zaiten's, but she more than makes up for it with an array of passive skills, like her ability to keep attacking if she manages to kill an enemy monster, and subsequently, any monster that survives her attack is instantly frozen solid, unable to move for one turn. And if she attacks a frozen monster, the damage will be doubled. Incidentally, frozen monsters take damage while engulfed in ice."

"Oh no!" Yami gasped. That meant he couldn't attack Dartz this turn.

Yukizome and Mai had to pick up the slack work. And Yukizome didn't have very many options to help her turn the tide. Still, she had to try. "I activate Polymerization so that I can summon to the field: Saint Joan!"

A human warrior appeared on the field. "Saint Joan! Attack Artowmayseeuh!"

Saint Joan darted forward and slashed Artowmayseeuh for 462 damage of her own. Everyone was surprised when Artowmayseeuh retaliated, hitting Saint Joan for 275 damage.

"It can counterattack?" Yami gasped.

"Aw, man! This stinks!" Joey exclaimed. "How are we supposed to kill it if it can freeze our monsters and counterattack."

"You needn't worry, Joseph Wheeler," Dartz chuckled. "Artowmayseeuh does not have the time to charge up her frostbitten abilities for her counterattacks. However…" The group noticed that Saint Joan was bleeding. "She can also cause a bleed effect on some monsters. This will sap your monster's health for three turns, assuming a second bleed effect does not activate."

Chiaki would love this game if it wasn't so life-threatening, Hajime thought. How he wished she was here.

"It's my summon now!" Mai declared. "And I'll also activate Polymerization in order to summon Amazonness Pet Liger!"

A furry, armored, growling blond cat monster appeared at Mai's side, snarling. "Go, attack Artowmayseeuh!"

Mai's pet Liger struck Artowmayseeuh for 280 damage, causing Artowmayseeuh to counterattack for 262 damage and inflict the bleed effect. And then, surprisingly, her Liger struck again.

"It countered Artowmayseeuh's counterattack!" Joey exclaimed.

"You can chain counterattacks in this game?" Hajime asked, mouth agape.

"You can," Kaiba said. "It's actually not a bad strategy either. You may lose a monster, but your opponent's monster typically won't be in the shape to fight after the constant counterattacks are said and done."

Mai ended up losing her monster, but she did a significant amount of damage to Artowmayseeuh in the process. The chained counterattacks totaled up to 1,717 damage, the best shot anyone had had at one of Dartz's monsters all battle.

"Heh, if chaining counterattacks will work, then watch what I can do!" Mai exclaimed. Her next monster was Amazoness Swords Woman. She attacked Artowmayseeuh outright for 153 damage.

"You're in for it now, Dartz," Kaiba stated. "Unlike most monsters, Amazoness Swords Woman doesn't halve her damage when she counterattacks, her attack power doubles and if she's countering a counterattack, it doubles again.

Dartz gasped, watching the ensuing carnage. Amazoness Swords Woman may have had low health, but the counterattack barrage would make up for it. Artowmayseeuh's first attack dealt 262 back to the Sword Master. However, a counterattack of 603 damage was swiftly dealt to Artowmayseeuh. The Orichalcos minion dealt 263 damage back to Amazoness Swords Woman, who retaliated with another vicious counterattack for 614 damage. It took two more hits to bring Amazoness Swords Woman down, but the resulting counterattacks totaled up to an additional 1,228 damage to Artowmayseeuh.

Mai dropped to her knee from the resulting soul damage, but got right back up. "I summon Amazoness Fighter!"

The Fighter could withstand almost twice as many hits from Artowmayseeuh given its bulky stature halved counterattack damage. And, thanks to another innate skill it had, it didn't halve its own damage when it counterattacked back. In the 6 hits it took for Dartz to bring down Amazoness Fighter, it had dealt 6 furious blows of its own to Artowmayseeuh totaling up to 956 damage.

Mai sank down to her knee again, breathing heavily from the tole this was taking on her sole. Her vision went blurry for a little bit.

"Mai, enough! Please!"

"Joey…I know I'm not going to last till the end of this battle," Mai said. "So, the most I can do is give you all the best fighting chance I can! Unfortunately, I can't summon any more monsters that can counterattack quite like that."

"Why not?" Hajime asked. "Why not keep summoning your counterattacking monsters."

Kaiba was quick to explain. "Monsters that are destroyed in battle can't be summoned again without monster reborn or similar magic cards, but can still be used for Fusion material to summon other monsters, like how I summoned my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon."

"For my current monster, I'll put in my play my Amazoness Archer. Since three Amazoness monsters have died, her arrows are powered up to do triple the damage. Now! Attack with Amazoness Arrow!" An arrow was let loose into Artowmayseeuh for 419 damage.

Surprisingly, Artowmayseeuh did not counterattack.

"What? Why didn't it do nothing?"

"Oh. I see," Kaiba chuckled. "It can only counterattack melee attacks, right?"

Dartz said nothing.

"Your silence speaks volumes," Kaiba retorted.

"Well, that's all I can do for now," Mai said, panting. "It's up to all of you now. Give him hell, Kaiba!"

"With pleasure," Kaiba responded. "This is for my company, Dartz!"

As Neutron Blast slammed into Artowmayseeuh for 743 damage, Joey looked at the panting Mai. Mai's really worn out. I hope she'll be okay.

Since Magician of Black Chaos was frozen, Yami's turn was skipped, but his monster thawed out of the ice.

It was now Hajime's turn. Blackland Void Dragon's might struck down onto Artowmayseeuh for 610 damage. Nothing resisted the power of the void.

Yukizome's monster took damage from the bleed effect placed on it, only 50, but 50 to the heroes was a lot more than 50 to Dartz's minions. Saint Joan struck down onto Artowmayseeuh for 463 damage, only to be struck back by 272 and another bleed effect stacked onto Saint Joan.

Joey swallowed when he realized it was his turn. Gilford attacked with melee, meaning Artowmayseeuh would counterattack him. However, if he was going to take damage, he was going to make sure that his attacks stung hard. "I equip Gilford the Lightning with Lightning Blade, increasing his attack power!"

Gilford power up and then charged towards Artowmayseeuh, impaling her and zapping her but good with a lightning attack. Artemisia was struck for 623 damage.

"Hell yeah!" Joey exclaimed. "That's what I'm talkin about!"

Artowmayseeuh retaliated of course, striking Joey's monster for 262 damage and applying the bleed effect.

Now it was Mai's turn and, with Amazoness Archer, she struck Artowmayseeuh for 430 damage. They'd almost completely taken out half of the icy minion's 20,000 life points.

Sonia was up now and, as before, Victoria commanded the dragons on the field to attack Artowmayseeuh instead of Victoria performing the attack herself. 1,330 damage was the resulting combo from Kaiba and Hajime's dragons.

The battle went back to Dartz. Yami held his breath. His Magician of Black Chaos was likely a goner this turn, but, rather than attacking, a glint appeared in Artowmayseeuh's white eyes. She then unfurled her whip sword, pulling it taught and then whipped the ground. A mysterious magenta aura surrounded her.

"Your move, Seto Kaiba," Dartz chuckled.

"What are you playing at, Dartz?" Yami demanded to know.

"You'll see, Pharaoh. You will all see."

Yami did not like the sound of that.

"You're going to regret passing your turn!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Neutron Blast!"

Blue-Eyes blasted Artowmayseeuh for 704 damage.

It's not a damage reduction ability. Yami thought. Dartz gazed patiently at him. And it doesn't appear to grant any ability to counterattack non-melee attacks. "Magician of Black Chaos, attack!"

Yami's monster struck forward for a decent 563 damage.

Hajime's move was similar with his flat 610 damage directly to Dartz's monster.

Yukizome's monster took 100 damage at the start of its turn. And it still managed to deal similar amount of damage as before: 264.

It doesn't reduce melee damage.

Artowmayseeuh counterattacked for 263 damage.

And it doesn't increase the power of counterattacks either, Yami noted. He couldn't figure out what Dartz's action was supposed to do. He felt like he was missing something.

Gilford the Lightning hit hard for 643 damage and was struck back for 263 damage from Artowmayseeuh, plus the 50 damage from its own bleed effect.

Mai's monster hit for 405 damage, resulting in no counterattack.

Victoria punched a huge hole in Artowmayseeuh to the tune of another 1,330 damage. The group was practically 80% of the way through Artowmayseeuh's health bar, but nothing different had happened all turn. However, that was when Yami noticed something quite wrong with the situation, Artowmayseeuh was still glowing.

He gasped. Of course! Each monster can only perform one action per turn! "Watch out!" Yami shouted. It was far too late though.

Artowmayseeuh, empowered by her mysterious aura struck Sonia's Victoria square through the chest, destroying it instantly. Recoiling her sword whip, Artowmayseeuh unfurled her whip again at Mai's Amazoness Archer, destroying it as well, and then it followed through on Yami's Magician of Black Chaos, killing it. The attack sailed forward into Hajime's Blackland Void Dragon, dealing 805 damage.

"I thought so," Yami said, his face grimaced with terror. "You gave up your turn so your monster could deal twice as much damage this turn. Like this, you could take out three monsters in one turn."

"Very astute, Pharaoh," Dartz said, grinning, "But there's more where that came from."

Artowmayseeuh pulled on her whip sword. "For you see, Artowmayseeuh's special skill, mind charge, doesn't just power up the attacks on her next turn, she gains two additional attacks for every monster she kills. And since I killed three monsters and have only attacked four times, well…you do the math," Dartz chuckled.

Hajime and Yami gasped.

"Oh no!" Yami exclaimed.

Artwomayseeuh struck down Hajime's Blackland, taking it out of the game. Now with two more additional attacks, Dartz had three more to expend. He extended the attack out to Yukizome's monster, freezing it and dealing 860 damage. Then, with his next attack, he destroyed it, giving him three more attacks remaining. With two of the attacks, one to free Joey's monster, and one to deal double the damage to break the freezing, Dartz destroyed Gilford the Lightning. He now had three attacks to lash at Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, the only monster left in play. Even though Kaiba's Blue-Eyes was armored, it did not help Blue-Eyes last through all three of Artowmayseeuh's attacks. In one fell swoop, Dartz had completely cleared the field. Sure, Artowmayseeuh would likely go down, but that was a small price to pay to completely wipe the board.

Everyone was down on one knee. Among the group, Mai appeared to be in the worst shape, seconded only by Kaiba.

Panting, Yami asked the others, as he got to his feet, "Is everyone all right?"

"Ugh," Yukizome whined, holding her stomach as she got up.

One by one, the other duelists rose to their feet. They were not going to let Dartz stopped them.

"Since I managed to clear your entire field, that means you have to summon in turn order and since you'll be taking your turn when you would normally take your turn, you don't get a free attack."

The magenta aura had disappeared from Artowmayseeuh. If they were going to remove her from the field, they needed to do it now.

Kaiba was up first. "I summon to the field Wicked Dreadroot!" The massive green fiend stood behind Kaiba, almost reaching the ceiling. "Attack with Dark God's almighty fist!" Kaiba exclaimed. The massive monster struck forward and smashed Artowmayseeuh in the face, dealing 800 damage. Artowmayseeuh retaliated, but only struck Wicked Dreadroot for 125 damage and did not invoke the bleed effect.

Yami took point next. "I summon to the field my Summoned Skull!" he declared. "Summoned Skull, attack! Lightning Strike!" Lightning rained down onto Artowmayseeuh, dealing 275 damage.

Hajime, of course, had no intention of holding back any longer. "I activate another Polymerization, allowing me to bring Five-Headed Dragon to the field! And it gets an attack for each of its five heads!" He declared. The massive dragon unleashed its five separately elementally attuned attacks. The fire head dealt a massive 1,020 damage. Next came that water head, which dealt 328 damage due to Artowmayseeuh resisting the deluge poured onto it. The earth head attacked with a lightning bolt, dealing 560 damage. The wind head blasted down a vicious razor wind to the tune of 710 damage. And the darkness head finished Artowmayseeuh off, destroying her.

"What happens now?" Joey asked. "We haven't finished summoning our monsters."

"Dartz will get to attack and turn order is reset," Kaiba said. "Hinata just spared all of you some pain by being able to take out Dartz's monster when he had the chance."

"Yes, but I'm afraid you will now bear witness to an even stronger monster. Behold the terrifying dread of Orichalcos Kaystor!" A massive black and gold lance, with the lance head shaped like a unicorn's head appeared. There was also a rider on top of the lance, its clothes jet black and covered in spikes, a cannon jutting out of its chest. Its head was but a skull with green fire surrounding it. Aside from the Orichalcos emblem halos floating above the horse's head, this was the only indication that this was a minion of the Orichalcos.

Kaystor charged its cannon up and dark energy emitted from the horn on the lance. Both fired forward, hitting Yami's Summoned Skull right where it hurt. The attack was enough to drop Summoned Skull dead as dirt.

Yami winced from the pain, but did his best to power through it. "Thank you for the free turn Dartz, for now I'm able to use Polymerization to fuse my Summoned Skull with Joey's Red-Eyes Black Dragon in order to summon Black Skull Dragon!" Yami's monster roared as it took to the field. "Black Skull Dragon, attack! Molten Fireballs!" Black Skull Dragon rained down a multitude of fireballs onto Kaystor, dealing 639 damage.

Dartz only smirked as Black Skull Dragon was then counterattacked for a powerful 1,217 attack points.

"What?" Yami gasped.

"Oh yes, Kaystor is completely unrelenting. It counterattacks everything."

"That makes it even more dangerous than Artowmayseeuh, it's power is absurd!" Yukizome exclaimed.

"Indeed," Dartz smirked.

"I don't care. It's my move now and I'll have Wicked Dreadroot attack your monster!" Wicked Dreadroot plowed its fist into Kaystor's face, dealing 800 damage. Kaystor retaliated with 1,217 damage to Kaiba's monster.

"What?" Kaiba gasped. "But my monster cuts all monster's…attack…in…half."

Everyone's blood ran cold. This was the power Kaystor showed with reduced damage thanks to Kaiba's monster.

"I don't feel so good you guys," Joey stated.

"It's your move, Pharaoh," Dartz said. "Don't disappoint me."

Yami growled, eyes wide with frustration as he declared for Black Skull Dragon to attack. He landed a good 622 damage, but got hit with 1,343 damage for his troubles right back. A stiff breeze could knock over Yami's monster with the amount of damage it took.

"My move," Hajime said. "Five-Headed Dragon, attack!" Hajime was hoping that Kaystor didn't get a counterattack for every head that attacked. Fortunately, it didn't Hajime's monster counted as though it delivered a 5-hit combo attack and not that each head was its own separate attack. Hajime's Five Headed Dragon was a fearsome beast to be sure. After all the damage racked up, Hajime alone had dealt 2,593 damage. Kaystor then retaliated with a nasty assault of 1,300 damage flat. Fortunately for Hajime, Five Headed Dragon could take a serious beating.

It was Yukizome's turn now and she knew the time for games was over. She had to bring out her best monster. "I call to the field Wicked Eraser!" The fiend she'd pilfered from Gurimo was now being turned against Dartz. Her monster delivered a darkly colored beam straight into Kaystor's abdomen and punched straight through, dealing 800 damage to the monster. Kaystor, of course, retaliated with the double beam shot that dealt 1,200 damage to Wicked Eraser without an issue.

Down so many powerful monsters, Joey knew he had to bring in the big guns. This one's for you, Ibuki. "I'm calling upon the power of Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju!"

Joey's three-headed behemoth took to the field. And, just like Hajime, his monster also had a combo attack. "Go, Thunder King! Attack! Triple Lightning Destruction Blast!" Thunder King rained holy hell down onto Kaystor for three hits of damage, totaling up to 959 damage. Kaystor quickly retaliated upon Joey's Thunder King, instantly dealing 1,200 damage to it.

Unfortunately for Mai, she only had one monster sturdy enough to withstand Kaystor for even one attack, her Harpie's Tamed Pet Dragon. "Harpie's Tamed Pet Dragon, attack! Giga Ton Flare!" The sheer force of the blast fired from Harpie's Tamed Pet Dragon sent Kaystor flying into the wall, burning it for 345 damage.

Kaystor retaliated of course, searing Mai's dragon with 1,159 damage.

"I activate Polymerization!" Sonia exclaimed. "This allows me to fuse together Jack's Knight, King's Knight, and Queen's Knight in order to summon Arcana Knight Joker who is immune to counterattacks since he is normally immune to monster effects!"

"Good call, Sonia!"

"Let him have it, free from charge!" Joey exclaimed, balling a fist.

"Indeed!" Sonia exclaimed. "Arcana Knight Joker, attack!"

Joker's blade cleaved into Kaystor, dealing significant damage of 520 and Kaystor made no motion to counterattack, leaving Joker pristine and untouched.

Now that it was Dartz's turn again, he looked at the field. Thanks to Kaystor's ability to rack up damage fast, he certainly had his options of who to fell. Attacking Joey would allow the boy to dig his own grave come next turn, but he could also fell the Pharaoh or Mai with a single shot. However, Mai would dig her own grave on her turn, having no monsters that could last a single counterattack from Kaystor. Then the choice was simple, especially since dealing with the Pharaoh sooner would make the rest of the game moot.

"I attack Black Skull Dragon with the might of Orichalcos Kaystor!"

The attack blasted into Yami's dragon, destroying it as it crashed to the ground behind him. Yami took a knee, soul damage racking up fast. He was barely in better shape than Kaiba.

"Then I shall call to the field Gaia the Fierce Knight!" Yami exclaimed. The horse riding, jousting lance wielding knight took to the field. "Cavalry Charge attack!"

Gaia rammed his lances into Kaystor one at a time, dealing 230 damage to the monster. Kaystor retaliated as expected, dealing 1,317 damage to Gaia.

"Come on, Yug. You gotta do better than that!" Joey exclaimed.

"I…have a plan," Yami grunted.

"Hmph, your plan will have to wait. It's my turn first!" Kaiba shouted. "Wicked Dreadroot, attack!"

Dreadroot punched Kaystor a good one for 800 points of damage, taking 1,217 in return.

"Let's see that plan, Yug," Joey said.

"Right," Yami nodded. "I activate Black Luster Ritual!" Yami managed to upgrade Gaia the Fierce Knight to ascend to that of Black Luster Soldier. Black Luster Soldier shot forward at Kaystor, landing a blow of 396 damage to the monster. Kaystor retaliated only for the blast to be met with Black Luster Soldier's shield, reducing the damage down to only 608.

"All right! Counterattacks are half as effective!" Joey exclaimed.

"It's not just counterattacks, Black Luster Soldier has the ability to halve all damage targeting it. A bold move, but one that paid off. Well done," Kaiba told Yami.

"Heh," Yami said smirking.

"All right then, my move!" Hajime exclaimed. It was time for his Five Headed Dragon to bring the hurt on Dartz's Kaystor. Hajime racked up damage to total up to 2,577 in damage, bringing Kaystor more than a quarter of the way down in life points. Kaystor retaliated, hitting Hajime for 1,159 damage. However, Hajime's monster was a sturdy one, it would not go down so easily.

And Yukizome's Wicked Eraser was much the same as it pierced Kaystor for another 800 points of damage and took another 1,200.

It was Joey's turn now. His thunder king let loose a total of 990 damage and then took another 1,300 in counterattack damage.

Mai took a deep breath. This was going to hurt. "I attack with Harpie's Tamed Pet Dragon!" Her monster dealt a vicious 324 damage to Kaystor, but the counterattack sent it straight to its demise.

Mai dropped to one knee, the damage to her soul severe. "I summon Harpie Lady Keraino!" A blue-haired Harpie Lady floated on the battlefield next to Mai. "Attack now with Shredding Scratch Slash!"

Keraino swooped through the air and cut Kaystor for 134 damage.

"A poor choice of monster," Dartz stated, but Kaystor did not budge. "What…what's going on?"

"Heh, Keraino can nullify a monster's abilities for one of its turns with her claws. So unless you wipe her from the field, your counterattack will be nullified," Mai stated.

"All right! That gives us all a free shot at it!" Joey exclaimed. "Nice work, Mai!"

"And I guess that means my "poor choice of monster" gets to stick around for a bit longer, don't you think?" Mai asked. Dartz gnashed his teeth. He had hoped to end Mai quickly, but the situation had turned completely around. No matter, he would send her to her doom on his turn then and take his injuries like the well-dressed man he was.

"Arcana Knight Joker, attack!" Sonia declared. Her monster cut into Kaystor's body, dealing a solid 424 points of damage to it.

It was Dartz's turn now and boy was he going to make Mai suffer for that one. "Kaystor, destroy her Harpie."

Mai took a knee, but kept up her smile. "I'm not done yet," she stated. "I summon Harpie Lady Ocupete!" The orange haired Harpie appeared. "Keraino isn't the only one that can nullify monster effects. Go, Harpie Lady! Attack now!"

Kaystor was scratched for 134 damage again. Oh, this bode poorly. All seven of his opponents were now free to unload their attacks onto Dartz with no retaliation. All seven monsters barreled into Kaystor for a grand total of 7,446 damage combined. Dartz's monster had lost half its health and he wasn't about to let Mai get away with that.

He ordered Kaystor to obliterate Mai's Harpie and waited to see what she would do next. She smirked. "Sorry to disappoint you, hon, but I've got one more monster that can stand up to this counterattack fest you've got going on. I activate Polymerization to summon my only fusion monster: Amazoness Empress!"

A tribally dressed woman in a regal red cape and holding a scimitar with an eye in the hilt and teeth all over the bladed end appeared on the battlefield.

"Amazoness Empress takes significantly reduced damage from counterattacks, but will also nullify a counterattack if it would kill her. And, when she's destroyed, I get to summon Amazoness Queen from my graveyard. "Go! Now!"

Amazoness Empress managed to take 12 attacks from Kaystor, going toe to toe with it in a Blitzkrieg of Amazoness fighting spirit. Just when the spectators thought she could take no more, Mai's monster kept fighting and fighting bitterly, taking its hits better than any man. And it was giving back just as much pain in return. When the dust settled, Mai's monster hung on with 1 life point and Dartz's monster had taken 13 attacks in retaliation. She dealt 6,497 damage, which had included two critical hits.

"Excellent work, Mai!" Yami exclaimed.

Mai smiled and waved. She knew she had one foot in the grave, but if she was going down, she was going down swinging.

Thanks to the opening provided by Mai, as Amazoness Empress had been her counterattack to losing Ocupete, she and the others still had the opportunity to mount a full-scale assault against Dartz, resulting in 6,621 damage. The dragon holders and their allies could see Kaystor's injuries mounting, the cracks in the lance notable.

"We got it on the ropes!"

"It has less than 7,000 life points remaining!" Hajime exclaimed. "We can do this."

"Let's just see about that!" Dartz exclaimed. He blew up Mai's Amazoness Empress with Kaystor, resulting in massive soul damage to the blonde. The pain and fatigue were so severe that Mai fell forward onto the ground.

"Mai? Mai!" Joey ran over to her, trying his best to help her up. Mai groaned. She was barely hanging in there.

"You all right?" Joey asked.

"That you, Joey?" Mai asked. "Ugh, I can barely see."

Joey put her arm around his shoulder. "Hang in there, Mai. You can do this. Can you stand?"

Mai stood up, feet wobbling. "I can…" she stumbled. Joey caught her.

"Easy there. I got you," Joey said, keeping her steady. "I'm right here with you."

"Thank you, Joey," Mai said and called forth Amazoness Queen. Her monster managed to deal 240 damage to Kaystor. Kaystor retaliated dealing 1,199 points of damage to Mai's monster. It seemed Amazoness Queen too could not be killed by counterattacks. Mai let out a deep breath. She didn't know how much longer she was going to last, but if Joey kept her upright, his warmth was all she needed to keep going.

Kaiba attacked for 800 points of damage, taking 1,159 in counterattack damage right back.

Yami attacked next for 600 damage flat, taking only 608 back from the counterattack.

"Less than 5,000 to go!" Hajime exclaimed. "Let's keep it up."

Hajime managed to overcome more than half that count with 2,669 total damage from his Five Headed Dragon. He received 1,317 in counterattack damage.

"2,000 points remaining!" He called out, having done the math.

Yukizome nearly cut that in half with her monster, bringing Kaystor down to 1,200 life points. She took 1,200 points of her own in counterattack damage.

Joey almost finished the job with Thunder King, managing to deal 1,022 damage in total. Unfortunately, Kaystor's counterattack managed to remove Thunder King from the equation, causing Joey to take a knee.

"Joey, no!" Mai exclaimed, hands on his back.

"I'm…fine," Joey panted. "Not gonna…let this bastard beat me!" He was actually in moderately better shape than Kaiba and Yugi. Not to mention, Dartz had left himself wide open to Joey being able to take him down.

"I summon Sword Hunter!" Joey exclaimed, bringing out a tough 7-star monster. "And the timing couldn't be better. Since I'm about to KO your monster, that means I'm gonna get a huge power boost! Go! Sword Hunter! Take him out!"

With its Twin Swords, Sword Hunter cut down Kaystor and then absorbed its essence, radically boosting its stats. Parts of its armor turned black, indicative of the absorption.

"Very impressive," Dartz said. "That's five minions of the Orichalcos you have managed to defeat without losing a single ally. Most impressive. Unfortunately, you will likely lose a few allies from this next monster. I call upon the blustering winds of Orichalcos Mercury!"

A thing, 7-foot tall humanoid with a gigantic wing for a shield, golden boots, golden gauntlets, carrying a golden scepter with the tip being a pair of wings stood with a knight's helmet and glowing green eyes, indicating it was a minion of the Orichalcos. As if that wasn't enough to indicate its servitude, it also sported an entirely green spandex outfit as it floated high in the air.

"Mercury, you know what to do."

Blustering winds shredded into every monster on the field, dealing 1,000 damage to all monsters except for Black Luster Soldier, to which it only dealt 500. With Mai having lost a monster and using Joey to balance herself, the group could only worry that this monster could counterattack and given it likely had 80,000 life points, that would likely earn them all front row seats to the end of the world as Leviathan food.

However, Mai steeled her nerves. She had a monster that could withstand the fearsome power of Mercury. "I call upon Harpie Lady Airo!" Mai declared. Her last Harpie Lady companion appeared. "Go…and attack!" Mai panted.

Her monster darted forward for 165 points of damage and, fortunately, received no form of counterattack. The group breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't rest on your laurels just yet. Mercury is one of the more powerful minions of the Orichalcos. You will all meet your demise soon enough," Dartz said with a smile.

"We will all defeat you together!" Sonia declared. "Joker! Attack!"

The sword of Sonia's monster connected with the petit body of Dartz's monster, only dealing 425 damage.

Unfortunately, it was Dartz's turn again. Everyone held their breath. Powerful, shredding winds slammed into every enemy monster, dealing 1,000 damage to all monsters except for Mai's and the Pharaoh's. And, unfortunately, that was enough damage to topple Kaiba's Wicked Dreadroot.

"Uh oh," Joey noted. That was their safety net.

With Wicked Dreadroot down for the count, Kaiba didn't look so good, having taken the most Soul Damage out of everyone sans Mai.

"In that case, I'll—" Kaiba began to say, holding up a magic card.

"Kaiba! Wait! Don't use Monster Reborn!" Yami urged.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Kaiba demanded.

"Kaiba, I have a plan. I need you to trust me," Yami noted.

Kaiba gazed at his rival sternly, only to take proper note of Yami's monster. He understood what Yami was trying to do. "Fine," Kaiba responded. "It's a good thing that an expert duelist like me always has a backup plan. I call upon the destructive power of a brand new card. Feast your eyes on this! Go, Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End!"

A powerful, terrifyingly ferocious green dragon emerged onto the battlefield. Kaiba clutched at his chest. That card cost him his own soul energy to play on the field and for him, it was worth the risk.

"Next, I activate my monster's special ability. By drawing power from my own soul, I can multiply the damage factor of my monster to do considerable damage to yours!"

Kaiba fed his monster his own soul energy, increasing his soul damage. However, the attack let loose by Chaos Emperor Dragon was truly a sight to beheld in its own right. Numbers did not lie: 2,700 points of damage. This shocked everyone.

"Chaos Emperor Dragon can convert my own soul into power for every monster on the field, including itself."

Dartz hardly seemed concerned. "Your monster won't be around for more than a couple of turns. Your actions are futile. By the time you destroy it, you'll have at least one foot in the grave."

"We'll see," Kaiba snarled, clutching his chest.

Kaiba gave me this opportunity. I can't afford to waste it. "MY MOVE!" Yami thundered. "And I activate a second Polymerization! This time I'll fuse my Black Luster Soldier with the power of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to form: Dragon Master Knight!"

Often the question was posed between Chiaki and Hajime: What was more awesome: Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon or Black Luster Soldier? Well, now Hajime had an answer: Black Luster Soldier atop Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

"Unreal…I've never seen anything like it."

"My monster gains power for every dragon monster that's been played on the field!" Yami thundered. "And he's not going anywhere anytime soon!"

Yami's monster had a massive health bar, even larger than Hajime's Five Headed Dragon.

Maybe I shouldn't have traded away my copy of Black Luster Soldier if this is an actual thing, Hajime thought, still astonished.

The spirit of Blackland Void Dragon, Black Skull Dragon, Mai's Harpie Dragons, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Blackland Fire Dragon, Koumouri dragon, the four dragons Hajime used to make Five-Headed Dragon—he'd used one fusion substitute—all three of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes, and the existing presence of Kaiba's Chaos Emperor Dragon, powered up Yami's monster making it the strongest monster on the field in terms of damage output.

"Dragon Master Knight, attack! Chaos Neutron Force!"

The attack blasted straight into Mercury for a 2-hit combo attack, slamming Dartz with 2,545 damage total.

"Excellent move, Yugi," Hajime said. "And I have just the thing to bounce off it!" Hajime held a spell card in his hand. "I'm powering up Five Headed Dragon with the power of the Horn of the Unicorn!"

Dartz took a step back.

"I see you know what I know," Hajime said. "Your monster is a wind-type, meaning it takes extra damage from bolts of electricity!"

Five Headed Dragon's attacks were amplified by electrical energy, doubling its damage output and making its wind damage from its wind head into neutral damage. The damage from Hajime's attacks totaled up to 6,292 damage on its own given the water head conducted the electrical current for double the damage all on its own. Dartz's monster had lost an eighth of its health and the damage was still piling up.

"Not bad," Yukizome said. "Wicked Eraser! Go for it!"

Wicked Eraser's beam fired forward and tore into Mercury, nailing it for 800 points of damage.

"And the fun's just gettin' started!" Joey exclaimed. "Go! Sword Hunter! Take him down!"

Sword Hunter slashed at Mercury, cleaving a well-deserved 1,225 points of damage for Joey.

"Harpie…Lady…Airo…" Mai gasped. "Attack!"

Mai's monster flew forward and scratched at Mercury for only 159 points of damage. In this boss rush, every point counted.

"And now, my turn!" Sonia exclaimed. "Arcana Knight Joker! Attack!"

Her monster slashed at Mercury, landing another solid hit of 424 damage.

"You all think you're so impressive, but you are nothing compared to the might of the Orichalcos!" Dartz declared as he unleashed his full powered winds. Without Wicked Dreadroot to buffer the damage, each monster suffered 2,000 points of damage, except Mai's Harpie, which suffered 1,000. Not that it mattered. Her monster didn't have enough power to take that type of a hit.

Mai dropped to one knee again, taking Soul Damage. Joey, as before, helped her up. Mai was a trooper though, she wouldn't give up hope, not as long as Joey was standing right next to her.

"I'll summon to the field Amazoness Blowpiper!"

A poison dart shot forth from the blowpiper's blowgun and stuck itself into Mercury's torso. "Not only is your monster now poisoned, but it also gets its attack power reduced. Not bad for such a weak monster, don't you think?" Mai asked.

"My move!" Kaiba shouted. He, Hajime and Yugi all let Dartz have it for a massive, no retaliation invoked, 11,766 damage combined. Dartz's monster was a quarter of the way dead thanks to them. They knew that this hard hit would not last though. Dartz's next attack would do serious damage to the whole team and take Kaiba, Yukizome, Mai, and Sonia for for a hard loop.

Mai, Joey, Sonia and Yukizome added an additional 2,529 to Dartz's monster's damage count, with an extra poison stack and damage reduction from Mai.

Dartz, of course, felt fortunate that his opponents had barely made a dent in Mercury. The monster still had more than 50,000 life points left. And he was about to deal serious damage to the lot of them. With a wind blast that shook the entire battlefield, even though it was at half power thanks to Mai's monster, Dartz still managed to take out Chaos Emperor Dragon, Wicked Eraser, Amazoness Blowpiper and Arcana Knight Joker, knocking three out of the four owners to the ground, but Yukizome just took a knee.

"Heh heh," she chuckled. "Thanks for taking out my monster." She grinned. "It has a little going away present for you."

Dartz gasped as a massive tidal wave of erasure energy flooded from behind Yukizome's group and barreled into Mercury slamming it hard for a nasty 9,185 unavoidable damage. Dartz gnashed his teeth. He could've done without that. His monster's health bar had been reduced by almost half.

"And don't forget, Dartz," Kaiba said with a smirk. "Since you destroyed three of our monsters, that means I get to attack twice after those two summon their next monsters."

"And don't forget about the poison damage," Mai pointed out. It was only 200 extra points, but every little bit helped.

"First!" Kaiba exclaimed. "I'll summon XYZ Dragon Cannon!" He fused his union monsters together and blasted Dartz with an onslaught of pain. Unfortunately, Kaiba's days of big numbers had been significantly cut short. He only hit for 280 damage.

"I'll summon Magna Slash Dragon!" Yukizome declared. "Not only is it a strong monster, but it boosts the power of the Pharaoh's Dragon Master Knight!" Her monster flew forward and attacked, managing to deal 240 damage.

"And I'll choose this monster!" Mai stated, "Amazoness Paladin and she gains extra power for every Amazoness monster in my graveyard!" Boosted by her fallen comrades, Amazoness Paladin struck with a fearsome 1,370 damage against Mercury.

With so many fast enemies, Dartz could hardly make use of Mercury's best attribute: it's speed. He would make it to his 7th minion and he still would not have taken out a single one of his adversaries. That needed to change and that needed to change soon.

"And do not forget about me!" Sonia exclaimed. "I'm sending into battle my strongest monster! I call upon thee: Darklord Morningstar!" Sonia's strongest minion entered the field of battle. And, with lightning fast speed, slash Mercury for a nasty 600 points of damage.

"Now that their turns are over, it's my dragon's turn now!" Kaiba exclaimed. "And I'll attack with my XYZ Dragon Cannon!"

Kaiba's monster zapped Dartz for 277 points of damage.

"My move!" Yami exclaimed. "And now, Dragon Master Knight will attack!" Yami managed to deal 2,850 damage on his own. He and his friends were over halfway to putting down Mercury. They just needed to keep up this momentum.

Hajime weighed in with his Five Headed Dragon, dealing a devastating 6,198 points of damage. Dartz would never be happier to be rid of that eyesore of a dragon next turn.

"My turn! Go Magna-Slash Dragon!"

Yukizome's monster cut into Mercury for 215 damage.

"Don't forget about me!" Joey exclaimed. "Go! Sword Hunter!" His powered up monster slashed Dartz's monster up good for another 1,230 damage.

"Attack!" Mai exclaimed. She was really nearing her limit. Worse, her monster hadn't the stamina to survive even one attack from Dartz. Still, 1,370 damage was nothing to sneeze at.

And lastly, Sonia had her say with Darklord Morningstar helping her out. "Attack!" She declared. Her monster slashed Mercury, landing a critical hit for 1,265 points of damage.

It was Dartz's turn now and though he was still hampered by 100 points of poison damage and a reduction to his attack, he was not going to let that stop him. "Mercury! Blow these fools away with your powerful wind!"

Hajime clutched his head when the blast tore down his Five-Headed Dragon and neither Yukizome nor Sonia's monsters stood any kind of chance against Mercury's power. Mai appeared to be on her last legs. She hadn't much left in her.

After making sure Mai was still with the group, Joey looked over to the agonized Hajime. "Hajime!" He called out to him. "You okay, pal?"

"I'll…manage," Hajime panted, getting up.

This cannot be explained by the protection of the dragons alone. The willpower of these mortals is incomprehensible! Dartz crunched the numbers. Only Mai was more than 80% comatose. The rest were less than half. Sonia had only 33% and Kaiba had closer to 40% of his soul damaged for the Orichalcos to steal.

Dartz would just have to make peace with the fact that he would need his 7th minion to do some real damage. On his next turn though, Dartz would be able to take out Joey's annoyingly powered up swordsman and Sonia's most powerful monster. He just had to be patient. Even if the group could plow through his 6th and 7th minion. He knew for a fact that none of them would live past his 8th minion. And even if they did, so long as one or two of them remained, he could certainly take them down in a duel. Nay, even if it was three, he could still win. These fools had no idea who they were messing with.

"I might be low on options," Hajime said, holding up a card, "But I'm not low on power! I summon to the field my Buster Blader!" Buster Blader stood upon the battlefield with his massive sword at the ready. "And next, I activate Polymerization, fusing my monster with the Pharaoh's Dark Magician in order to summon Dark Paladin!"

Dark Paladin's attack power was insane given the amount of dragons that had bit the dust and were present on the field. The green energy blast from its scepter ruptured Mercury for 1,149 points of damage.

"I summon to the field my Guardian Angel Joan!" Joan, ascended to the field as a fairy-type and blasted Mercury for 243 points of damage with beam of light from its hands.

"I…s-summon," Mai struggled to say. "Harpie's…pet…baby dragon." A baby dragon version of the Harpie dragon appeared and boy could this thing belch out some fire. Mai grunted and pointed at Dartz's monster, her monster setting on fire for a good 472 points of damage, powered up by the Harpie Ladies Mai had lost throughout the duel.

With the new monsters summoned, the fight fell back to Kaiba who quickly punched another tiny hole in Mercury's life bar, 250 points worth.

Yami attacked with his devastatingly powerful Dragon Master Knight for 2,900 points of damage.

Hajime's turn was next and he hit hard for 1,000 points. The group had now exceeded 60,000 points on Dartz's monster.

Yukizome's Guardian Angel hit Mercury with another ray of light for 293 damage.

On Joey's turn, his Sword Hunter hit for only 1,300 points. The group was getting closer, but things were about to go south.

As Sonia's Darklord Morningstar ripped Mercury for a good 597 damage, it was Dartz's turn once more.

The powerful winds emitted from Mercury wiped out Yukizome's monster, Joey's monster, Mai's monster, and Sonia's monster while also dealing serious damage to all the others. He also scored a critical hit on Kaiba's monster, wiping it from the field. Kaiba, Sonia, and Yukizome all groaned and clutched their bodies with agony. Joey withstood the punishment. After all, Mai lay on the ground. His concern for her outweighed his own misfortune. Her body was shaking. Just standing was a lot of effort.

Kaiba was in the worst shape of all, half his soul had been damaged thanks to losing a fusion monster. He could not afford to play around anymore. He was about to make his move when he heard Wheeler and Mai talking.

"Mai, come on, stay with me."

"Jo…ey…" Mai said, barely able to get the words out. "So…tired."

"Mai?"

Mai went limp in Joey's arms.

"Mai!"

The shimmer of the sound of the Seal of Orichalcos could be heard as the seal appeared beneath Mai's legs and all her strength faded.

"Mai? MAI! No! Come on! Wake up!"

"Joey…it's no good, she…"

"SHE'S FINE!" Joey shouted. "MAI IS FINE!"

"Joey…" Yami looked ashamed. Watching a comrade lose someone precious to them hurt just as much as when he lost Yugi not too long ago.

"Miss Valentine has served her purpose, as will you in time, Joseph Wheeler," Dartz said.

"Why you…you creep!" Joey shouted. "I'm gonna make you pay for that!"

"Wait your turn, Wheeler!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Like Yukizome said at the start of this, we all have our reasons for wanting to take Dartz down and I'm not through making him suffer for what he tried to do to my company!" I can't afford to hold back any longer, Kaiba thought. "I activate the Fang of Critias and I'll combine it with the trap card: Cloning, in order to merge it with a copy of your monster!" Kaiba declared.

Critias merged with the trap card, spawning a powerful monster that looked like Critias, but was gray in body like a storm cloud. A powerful tornado blew around its entire body. Its roar was deafening. Kaiba was putting his very soul on the line now. Critias and his soul were one now. If his monster was destroyed, so too would Kaiba's soul go to the Leviathan. However, Kaiba had no intention of giving in, not by a long shot.

"Behold! Cloned Wind Dragon!" Kaiba declared as his monster roared, shaking the infrastructure of the room. "Go, my Legendary Dragon, attack with Wind Dragon's Claw Strike!"

Critias darted forward and slashed Mercury with its forward claw, managing to score a massive 5,000 points of damage on the monster. Critias roared in retaliation. This was Kaiba's strongest monster that he could muster. He was throwing playing games. Dartz was going down!

Yukizome, finding Kaiba's behavior reckless, decided not to copy his style and use her own dragon, not yet anyway. "I summon to the field Moisture Creature!" Yukizome exclaimed. A white, humanoid-like being appeared on the battlefield with its face hidden with shadow and two soulless yellow eyes peering out from within it. It was wearing white spandex while carrying a ray gun and having a backpack full of god knows what on its back. "And I'll activate his special ability: Proton Pack Plus!" Yukizome exclaimed. Her monster glowed white. "Just like with when you used Artowmayseeuh, my monster doubles its attack power, though I'm giving up my turn for now."

"And I'm gonna activate Polymerization in order to fuse together two normal monsters to summon my First of the Dragons!" Joey exclaimed. Losing Mai had angered him, but he knew better than to recklessly use Hermos. He still had a few more monsters he could count on before he would be forced to use his legendary dragon. "Go! First of the Dragons! Attack!"

Joey's monster slammed its forehead into Mercury, slamming its back against the seal protecting Dartz, dealing 270 points of damage to it.

"And I shall summon Dark Lord Nasten!" Sonia declared. Her bestial fallen angel rampaged onto the field with its white body and dark fur. It charged forward at Mercury, raking it with its claws for 260 points of damage.

With two more dragons entering the field of battle, Yami and Hajime's monsters were powered up.

If we're lucky, we might be able to bring down Mercury now, Hajime thought.

Kaiba was the first to attack, the ungodly devastating power of Critias laying waste to Mercury at 5,000 flat damage.

Yami picked up the slack from there. Dragon Master Knight dealt an insane 3,000 more damage, leaving Mercury with less than 4,000 life points left to stand with.

Unfortunately, as Hajime looked at the lineup, it did not seem like he and the others would be able to take Dartz down this turn. He looked solemnly at Mai. If she was still standing, if she had played one more monster they might've been able to squeak by. But, that didn't appear like it was going to be the case.

"I attack with Dark Paladin!" Hajime shouted, inflicting 1,390 points of damage on Mercury.

With a little over 2,000 points left to its lifespan, Mercury met the business end of Yukizome's Moisture Creature's ray gun. But then, something unexpected happened. Yukizome got a critical hit, slamming Mercury for 1,297 points of damage.

It just wasn't enough though. Neither Joey nor Sonia scored a critical hit, both dealing 477 points of damage combined.

Now it was Dartz's turn and everyone was about to take damage. The group braced for impact. Kaiba, Yukizome and Sonia caught the worst of it, Kaiba because Critias was his soul now and Yukizome and Mai because their monsters were destroyed.

Sonia now seemed a bit winded. She was putting on a brave face, but she was in just as terrible condition as Mai had been only minutes earlier.

Yukizome knew that she and Sonia could bring down Dartz's monster with their combined attacks and not have to let Kaiba waste an attack on overkill.

"I summon Wingweaver!" Yukizome exclaimed, putting a purple haired fairy with six wings, dressed in yellow onto the field. Her monster attacked with a brilliant beam of light dealing 276 damage to Mercury.

"And I shall choose Darklord Asmodeus!" Sonia declared, her purple feathered friend, dressed in blue and white, appeared on the battlefield. It flew towards Mercury and struck it with a fist imbued with darkness. Finally, the flying being fell.

"Is it over?" Joey asked.

"Do you have to ask?" Kaiba replied, rolling his eyes. Of course it wasn't over. Dartz didn't look the least bit tired.

"You all are formidable to make it this far," Dartz stated. "However, you will fall before the might of my seventh minion. I call upon the destructive power of Orichalcos Arrestarante!"

A black pit of ooze appeared on the ground as a sphere-like shape that turned out to be four skull faces fused together and all four were pitche black, with glowing green eyes and noxious green gas coming out of their mouths. On top of the skull was the torso and arms and head of a woman's body, green in color like the skulls' eyes with a large Orichalcos Emblem over her head that covered her eyes like it was some kind of disc-shaped sundial over the top half of her face.

"That…looks unfriendly," Joey stated.

"How right you are young Wheeler. In fact, Arrestarante, why don't you demonstrate your power for the unenlightened."

From the mouths of the skulls, rockets went everywhere, blasting all allied monsters on the field, dealing anywhere between 2,400 to 3,000 points of damage to every monster it hit. Joey and Sonia barely held onto their monsters by a thread, but Hajime and Yukizome were not so lucky. Yukizome took her injury in stride. Hajime…not so much. It looked like he'd just given out as he hit the floor.

"Hmph, from barely a twitch to out like a light. It happens I suppose," Dartz chuckled.

"Shut your damn mouth!" Hajime growled, pushing himself to his feet. "A guy feels like he's in a world of pain and suddenly you write him off as dead on arrival?" Hajime channeled some kind of inner energy, letting out a loud, "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" His hair flashed gold and his eyes turned red. A golden aura flared to life around Hajime. He'd entered his "awakened" state. He was through playing around. The time had come for him to cast his Legendary Dragon onto the field. "I summon the Horn of Pythagoras!" Hajime exclaimed. The orange dragon emerged onto the battlefield with a deafening roar, just like when Critias emerged. "And I'm merging him together with the power of the magic of Monster Reborn, creating: Resurrection Dragon!"

Pythagoras changed into a white dragon with purple wings shaped like the bladed cross of Monster Reborn's artwork. It also had a crest atop its head in the exact shape of Monster Reborn's artwork.

"And what good will that do you?" Dartz asked. "You can only control one monster at a time," Dartz said.

"Do you really think resurrecting monsters is Resurrection Dragon's only ability?" Hajime asked.

Dartz stared. He did not like where this conversation was headed.

"With Resurrection dragon, I can select one of my destroyed monsters and fuse it with my Resurrection Dragon." Hajime lowered his arm and then whipped it up into the air, palm reaching for the ceiling. "So now, I combine Resurrection Dragon with Five Headed Dragon to create a powerful monster never seen before! Behold! I summon Elemental Lord Dragon!"

A kaiju sized traditionally proportioned dragon roared as it hovered above Hajime. Its claws were like lava. Its tail was spiky and craggily like a mountain. Its stomach had a glowing cyclone symbol etched imprinted on it. Its body was gold like the light of the sun, and its horns and spikes were pitch black, emanating dark power. A blue mist emanated from its mouth, giving the dragon all six attributes in duel monsters in one being.

"Attack!" Hajime ordered.

A gigantic, royal blue stream of energy was emitted from the monster, carrying all six elements in one brilliant blue beam. The damage count was utterly absurd: 12,000 in one hit.

"I can't exactly follow up with such an absurdly strong monster, but I can at least give it my all!" Yukizome exclaimed. "I summon Goddess of Sweet Revenge!" Yukizome's green haired, last resort monster floated on the battlefield. It took aim at Dartz and blasted his minion for 180 points of damage.

"And that means it's back to me," Kaiba stated. "And I'll attack with my Cloned Wind Dragon!" Kaiba exclaimed. "Attack now with Cyclone Breath!"

Kaiba's monster exuded a fearsome breath onto Arrestarante, scoring 6,000 points of damage.

"And I won't be far behind," Yami stated. "I attack with Dragon Master Knight!"

Dartz took another 2,900 points of damage from the power of Yami's monster. The group was only a few attacks in and they'd already dented Dartz's minion by an eighth of its health.

"Not gonna hold back!" Hajime shouted. "I attack with Elemental Lord Dragon!"

Hajime's monster blasted Arrestarante for another 12,000 points of damage.

Yukizome's monster pitched in for its 180 points of damage, with Joey and Sonia having their monsters deal 270 and 300 damage respectively. Now that two legendary dragons were on the field, their divine presence helped eliminate the randomized factor of most attacks, but that would be both a boon and a bane at the same time.

As expected, Dartz blew away Yukizome, Joey and Sonia's monsters while also dealing significant damage to Kaiba, Yami and Hajime.

Yukizome was far from down and out though. "I summon to the field Phosphorage the Elemental Lord!" A weird looking yellow being with a ring of sunlight and thunderbolts around it appeared behind Yukizome. She held up her trusty Honest card. "And I think I'll power it up with Honest! Now, when it attacks, it gains the might of your monster!"

Honest blessed Phosphorage, boosting its insane attack power and gifting it snow white wings and turning its yellow body white.

"Phosphorage! Attack!" Yukizome exclaimed.

Her monster unleashed a devastating attack of 3,560 damage.

"And I'm not gonna just roll over and take it either," Joey stated. "I activate Polymerization! This will let me fuse my Red-Eyes Black Dragon with Yug's Summoned Skull to form my own Black Skull Dragon!"

Bringing the terrifying beast back to the foray, Joey unleashed its molten fireballs for a solid 320 damage on Dartz.

"And I shall summon to the field Darklord Desire!" Sonia exclaimed. He may not have been as powerful as Morningstar, but he was a fair bit more durable. His dark angelical blast struck home for a good 300 damage right to Dartz's monster.

Turn order resumed properly with Kaiba's turn as he, Yami and Hajime floored Arrestarante with a harsh combined total of 21,000 damage. As long as they could keep this up, they weren't going anywhere.

Yukizome smacked Dartz with Phosphorage with another 3,560 points of damage.

"My move!" Joey exclaimed. "And I'm boosting my Black Skull Dragon with my handy Dragon Nails magic card! Now he can deal even more damage!"

Black Skull Dragon's molten fireballs rained down on Arrestarante for 380 damage.

"And I shall attack with Darklord Desire!" Sonia declared. Her monster fired a dark beam of energy at Dartz's monster, dealing 300 points of damage.

"We're going to need about a hundred thousand more where that came from," Hajime stated.

"You'll all fail trying," Dartz said. "Arrestarante, attack!" He declared. His monster shot rockets everywhere that homed in on all six opposing monsters, dealing significantly damage. Yukizome was the only one to lose her monster. And the Pharaoh knew he would lose his next turn.

"This…is far…from OVEEEEER!" Yukizome shouted, powering through her pain. "I summon Athena!"

A regally dressed woman in white appeared carrying a glorious looking spear and a gold and silver targe. Yukizome had her monster raise its magnificent spear to the sky. "Athena gains power for every fairy-type monster that has been destroyed over the course of the battle. Now, go! Strike Arrestarante with your Spear of Justice!"

Athena fired a beam from her spear that penetrated straight through Arrestarante for 860 damage.

Since Dartz's attack had caused Yukizome to summon a monster, it was back to Kaiba. He, Yami and Hajime floored Dartz for another 21,000 points of damage. And Yukizome smacked Dartz for another 860.

"Black Skull Dragon! Attack with Molten Fireballs!" Joey then shouted. The damage only racked up to 380, but it was the best Joey could do at the moment.

"And now, first I shall activate Cestus of Dagla and equip it to Miss Yukizome's Athena!"

"To…my monster?" Yukizome was curious that Sonia had not helped her own. No…Sonia…don't tell me that you…

"And now, I shall have Darklord Desire activate its special ability. By converting 3,000 points of my soul, I can convert that into damage dealt for one powerful attack, but it will reduce my monster's attack for its next attack."

"There won't be a next attack for your monster, Princess Nevermind."

"Exactly! Strategy!" Sonia exclaimed, only to clutch her body and wince in pain as Darklord Desire slammed Arrestarante for 3,300 points of damage.

"How sad for you, young Sonia," Dartz stated. "Arrestarante, attack!"

The attack barreled into everyone's monsters, destroying Dragon Master Knight, Black Skull Dragon and Darklord Desire.

Sonia and the Pharaoh collapsed on the ground after they lost their monsters. Joey staggered, but did not fall. However, while the Pharaoh made to get up off the ground, Sonia continued to lay face-down.

"Sonia!" Yukizome darted over to her. She flipped her student over and lifted her up a little. Sonia's eyes were half lidded.

"Miss Yukizome…" Sonia said weakly.

"Sonia! Please! You just got back from the Shadow Realm! It hurt seeing you in pain! Please…don't let Gundham's sacrifice be for nothing!" Yukizome exclaimed through tears.

"It…will not…" Sonia said with tremendous effort. "I…will be…all right because this time…I…am not…scared." Sonia's strength left her, her soul leaving her body and implanting itself on an empty stone rectangle within the room.

"So much for our fair princess."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Yami roared. "I will not allow another one of my friends to fall to the power of the Orichalcos!" Winds blew upward in a clockwise spin around the Pharaoh as a bright glow gave off from the eye of the Millennium Puzzle. "I activate the EYE OF TIMAEUS!" The third Legendary Dragon emerged, its deafening roar echoing through the chamber. "And I'll combine it with the most powerful monster at my disposal: BLACK LUSTER SOLDIER!"

Black Luster Soldier emerged on top of Timaeus' neck as Timaeus suddenly had armor pieces fused to its body that resembled the gilded armor around the Knight of Chaos. "Behold! Black Luster Dragon – The Chaos King!"

A deafening roar echoed from Timaeus as he took his rightful place among his brethren. "Timaeus! Attack!" Yami exclaimed.

Timaeus launched itself forward and swiped its powerful claw across Arrestarante, only dealing 2,500 damage.

"Hmph, seems your monster lacks the bite of your companions'," Dartz said mockingly with a smirk.

"It has other abilities that make up for it," Yami replied. "You'll see."

With Timaeus in play, Joey was once again ready to roll. "I summon the Fiend Megacyber!" He wasn't planning on breaking out Hermos just yet. Unlike the others, Hermos made weapons. And he wanted to save that until he was absolutely certain he'd be of use to everyone else. No matter how many weaker monsters he threw at Dartz, Joey knew one thing for certain: he would not falter. However, when Fiend Megacyber attacked, it only dealt 110 damage. "What?!"

"Did you forget about armored monsters, Joseph Wheeler?" Dartz asked him. "Arrestarante has a thick armor around her body, the skulls that house her form. Truly, your monsters have all been attacking with magic in some form or another. How sad that yours is but a pitifully weak monster."

Joey growled, biting on the edge of his thumb.

"It's all right, Joey! We can do this! Don't let Dartz talk to you down," Yami stated.

Kaiba just rolled his eyes. He attacked again with Cloned Wind Dragon's 5,000 points of damage. Yami then repeated Timaeus' claw strike of 2,500 and Hajime tossed in another 6,000 for 13,500 points of damage. With this, the group had now crossed the halfway point threshold on Arrestarante.

Now, Yukizome stepped up to make her attack with Athena. Her monster unleashed a powerful blast of energy at Dartz from its spear for a total of 910 damage. Her monster then healed itself by the same amount.

"I'm beefing up Fiend Megacyber with Legendary Sword!" Joey exclaimed. "This'll let me attack for a little bit more damage!" Fiend Megacyber managed to deal 125 damage, but that was hardly anything to write home about at this point.

Without Sonia to pick up his slack work, it was Dartz's turn once more. He attacked everyone with Arrestarante's devastating power, which blew up Joey's Fiend Megacyber like it was made of wood.

"Not…done yet," Joey said, getting up. "Let's go Flame Swordsman!"

Joey's monster darted towards Arrestarante, only dealing 90 damage.

"Joey!" Yami called out in alarm.

"Don't worry, Yug, I've got a plan," Joey stated.

"Wheeler has a plan? Is it to bore Dartz to death?"

"I say we give him the benefit of the doubt," Hajime stated.

"Hmph," Kaiba grunted. "Whatever. Cloned Wind Dragon, attack with Legendary Gale!" Kaiba's monster unleashed its powerful blast and utterly laid waste to Arrestarante for 5,000 more damage.

"Black Luster Dragon, attack with Chaos Claw Strike!"

Yami's attack landed a critical, somehow dealing 10,000 damage.

"What? Impossible!" Dartz exclaimed.

Yami chuckled. "Whenever Black Luster Chaos Dragon lands a critical hit, the power of the attack is doubled. Bad luck, Dartz."

Dartz frowned, arm shaking with rage.

"And that's not all!" Hajime exclaimed. "Elemental Lord Dragon, attack!"

Hajime's monster unleashed a powerful beam that completely tore into Arrestarante for 6,000 more damage. Arrestarante had received over 100,000 damage total now. They could do this. With the power of teamwork, the five dragon holders could take Dartz down.

Yukizome ordered Athena to attack, landing another 910 damage.

"All right, Wheeler, let's see that plan of yours," Kaiba stated.

Joey nodded. "I activate my last Polymerization, fusing my Flame Swordsman with Yugi's Dark Magician, in order to create: Dark Flare Knight! Now! Attack!"

Joey sent his monster forward, its fiery sword connecting with Arrestarante, but only dealing 120 damage.

"This was your big plan?" Kaiba wondered, rolling his eyes.

"Shaddap," Joey complained. "My plan's not done yet. Dartz's monster deals 3,000 damage and I know this monster can withstand it. He blocks critical hits and he's a fusion monster so he's got plenty-a stamina ta burn."

"Well then, I'll just have to crush you before you get the chance to execute your plan," Dartz said as rockets launched everywhere, hitting all five monsters."

As Joey had claimed, his monster withstood Dartz's attack, but not by much.

Additionally, Athena remained standing with a sliver of health left. Thank you, Sonia.

The others had taken damage directly to their souls because they had their legendary dragons on the field.

"Take this!" Kaiba shouted. "Cloned Wind Dragon, attack!" Kaiba's monster's attack smashed into Dartz's monster for 5,000 points of damage.

"Black Luster Dragon, attack!" Yami bellowed, dealing 2,500 points.

"Elemental Lord Dragon, unleash your fury! Attack!" Hajime declared, dealing another 6,000 points. "We're almost seventy-five percent of the way there."

"Leave it to me then!" Yukizome exclaimed. "Go, Athena!"

Yukizome's monster managed to strike Dartz's monster with just enough power to put it over the line. That extra turn Sonia had bought her really helped the cause.

"One extra strike of less than 1,000 damage won't help you in the long run," Dartz proclaimed.

"We'll see about that!" Joey exclaimed. "Go! Dark Flare Knight!"

Joey's melee attack once again barely fazed Arrestarante, only dealing 120 damage.

"Fools," Dartz stated calmly and ordered Arrestarante to attack them all. Yukizome and Joey's monsters were both destroyed while Kaiba, Yami, and Hajime all took damage directly to their souls.

"I summon Milla the Temporal Magician!" Yukizome exclaimed, bringing out a monster that was so weak it was going to be blasted to smithereens by Arrestarante in one blast. But, she had a strategy, just like Joey, and she had every intention to follow through on it. Her monster was only able to deal 180 points of damage, but Yukizome had faith in her allies.

"All right! Time to make my move!"

Ah, good, Yukizome thought, hearing Joey all exuberant, I didn't steal his thunder.

"Since Dark Flare Knight was destroyed, that means he gets replaced by a specific monster. Say hello to Mirage Knight!"

A golden knight appeared on the battlefield carrying an elongated scythe. It had a blue cape, but it was decisively a melee monster.

What is he going to do with that? Kaiba wondered, expecting nothing, but failure.

"And Mirage Knight's got a special ability!" Joey exclaimed. "He borrows the attack of your monster and the smacks you with it right back!" Joey exclaimed. Mirage Knight's scythe glowed brightly as it spun swiftly towards Arrestarante. Unfortunately, it was still hampered by being a melee unit and only dealt 1,640 damage.

"That's it? All that work for not even two thousand damage?" Kaiba asked dryly.

"Nope. Check it out," Joey stated. Everyone watched as Mirage Knight faded as well…like a mirage.

"And since I don't have a monster out right now, I can summon a new one. Say hello to Gearfried the Iron Knight!"

Joey's monster was armored too, but that wouldn't matter soon enough. "Gearfried! Attack!"

Joey's monster only dealt 90 damage, but Joey seemed satisfied for some reason.

"I don't get it," Hajime stated.

"That makes two of us," Kaiba stated.

"Don't worry, I was thinking about this for a while. I know what I'm doing," Joey said with a straight face, giving a stern gaze at Dartz. "I'm gonna get my turn again before Dartz gets to go and that's just the opening I need."

"Hmph, whatever. I still think you're useless. Cloned Wind Dragon, attack!" Kaiba's monster flapped its wings multiple times and unleashing a twisting gray gale at Dartz's monster, dealing another 5,000 damage.

"Black Luster Dragon, attack!" Yami exclaimed, managing to deal 2,500 damage.

"We've just got 30,000 damage left to deal," Hajime said. "Elemental Lord Dragon, attack!"

Hajime shut down a sixth of the necessary damage with his attack for his typical 6,000 damage. Yukizome then added her minimal 180 damage and now, once again, it was Joey's turn.

"All right!" Joey exclaimed. "Here we go! I activate Release Restraint! This will transform Gearfried the Iron Knight into Gearfried the Swordmaster!"

"Ah! So that was your plan!" Hajime gasped. The gears were turning. He got it now.

"Oh? There was a point to all that nonsense?" Kaiba asked.

"Don't be so quick to judge," Hajime stated. "Just watch."

Gearfried the Swordmaster emerged with an invisible sword clutched in its hands. It fired off a sword beam from the weapon for 390 damage.

"Heh, and that's just one ability Gearfried can do when he ain't holding back, and I ain't gonna hold back either. After the initial damage just from gettin' summoned, I can activate another one of his abilities: Weapon Forging!"

"Weapon Forging?" Kaiba questioned, eyes narrowing.

"Thanks to Gearfried, I can activate one extra magic card on my turn once while he's been chosen as my monster, as long as that magic card results in Gearfried getting equipped with a weapon."

Yami gasped. "So that's what you were planning."

"This is for Mai, Ibuki and Natsumi!" Joey shouted, raising a card into the air. "DAAAAARTZ! I activate the Claw of Hermos!"

Hermos emerged, letting out his own deafening roar.

"Thanks to Hermos, I can fuse him with any other monster to make a weapon. And I choose…"

Dartz's eyes widened with shock as Mirage Knight faded into reality seemingly out of nowhere.

"Mirage Knight!"

Hermos and Mirage Knight forged together to create a purely bright yellow blade in the shape of an elongated trapezoid with a handle like a katana. "Say hello to Mirage Knight Zanbato!"

Gearfried reached for the blade and grabbed it firmly.

"And since I equipped Gearfried the Swordsmaster with a new weapon, he gets to attack automatically! And Mirage Knight Zanbato has all of the power of Mirage Knight built into it! Go! Gearfried! Attack with Mirage Sword Beam!"

Dartz ended up taking 3,670 damage.

"And that's not all," Joey chuckled, loving the feeling of his plan all coming together without a hitch. "See, that was just Gearfried's special ability kicking in. I still get to attack!"

Dartz's monster took another 3,670 damage to one of its skull faces.

"And since Gearfried is holding Hermos as a weapon that means my soul's locked in. I'm all in! It's all or nothin'!" Joey shouted.

Four of the five dragons had now taken the field.

"Well, I guess you're not useless after all," Kaiba chuckled. "What will you do now Dartz?"

"I'm going to attack all of you fools!" Dartz shouted. Arrestarante slammed its power into each and every one of his foes. However, Joey's monster seemed to dodge each and every one of the attacks.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about!"

"What?" Dartz gasped.

"Oh? Couldn't you tell? Thanks to Mirage Knight Zanbato, Gearfried the Swordsmaster can only be harmed by melee attacks! And that suits him just fine cause Gearfried the Swordmaster counters melee attacks as well!"

"And the problems for you Dartz are only just beginning," Yukizome said, not even fazed by the 1,800 damage she just took to her soul from losing Milla. I'm going to use it, Kyosuke. "I summon Artifact Labrys!"

A pink ethereal energy being wielding a massive axe appeared at Yukizome's side. It then flew forward and attacked Dartz. Sure, Arrestarante resisted melee attacks, and only took 115 damage, but Yukizome had a plan. No, it was more like a hunch, as well as faith in her comrades.

Why has she not summoned Iona yet? All of the other dragons have entered the battle, Dartz thought. What is she waiting for? He examined Yukizome thoroughly. And why is she standing there as if she is unfazed by all of this?

"Your turn's up Dartz," Kaiba said. "Which means it's my attack now! Go, Cloned Wind Dragon! Attack with Mercury's Gale!"

Kaiba's monster's attack slammed into Arrestarante. The conjoined skull being didn't have much left in it.

"My move!" Yami exclaimed. "Black Luster Dragon! Attack!" Yami's monster darted forward and slashed its claws but good into Dartz's monster, raking it for another 2,500 damage.

"This is it everyone!" Hajime exclaimed. "We can do this! Elemental Lord Dragon, attack!"

Hajime's monster blasted its regal blue beam of destruction at Arrestarante for a whopping 6,000 damage.

Nodding, Yukizome had Labrys smack Dartz for another 115 damage.

"It's all on you, Joey! Take down Dartz!"

"Don't worry," Joey said, stretching his arm over his torso and curling his other arm around his elbow. "Leave it to me! Cause I'm equipping my Gearfried with another weapon, not that he needs one! Go! Sword of Dragon's Soul!"

Gearfried held a weapon in his off hand like a kanabo and a sword had a baby and made something truly terrifying.

"And since Gearfried got equipped with a weapon, that means I'm gonna smack you a good one! Gearfried! Double blade beam strike!"

Gearfried launched his attack into Arrestarante and destroyed it. "Aw, yeah! Taken down!" Joey shouted. "Take that you ugly creepy thing!"

Dartz leaned his head back and started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Joey asked.

"You all are," Dartz stated. "I congratulate you on making it this far. I didn't actually think you would make it this far. However, you will not survive the truly omniscient power of Orichalcos Magatsu!"

A 12-foot tall humanoid construct with swords for legs, but normal arms and wearing a long coat that came down past where the knees should be stood in front of the group. Its head was shaped like an old fashioned knight's helmet with the "grate" covering the mouth area, but seemingly fused onto the face of the being. It was the design with two eye-holes. In its right arm, the being carried a strange weapon. It was long and straight like a lance, but the blade on the end was a katana in its own right. It was like a polearm, a lance and a sword had all been merged into one, rather interesting looking sword-like spear. Two flat, bladed, cable-like belts ran out behind the creature, attached to the inside top of either of its shoulders. The creature seemed discolored, only being a dull gray like muck covered armor in a poorly lit room.

However, with a snap of his fingers, Dartz made this armor-like being come to life. The blades on its legs, in its hands and trailing down and out behind it all had a green glow to them and the coat itself now had bolts of a green electric current running through them.

"Welcome to the final stage," Dartz stated. "Orichalcos Magatsu is the most powerful minion of the Orichalcos at my disposal for this little game. He will be all I need." With another snap of his fingers, the candles in the room were snuffed out. The room was illuminated solely by the green glow of the Seal of the Orichalcos and Orichalcos Magatsu, including its eerie green eyes.

Then, the Millennium Puzzle gave off a similar glow, illuminating the area around Yami and the others just a little bit. The glow from Hajime's hair also gave off a glow. But, even with all that light, the room was still plenty ominously dark.

"Now then, I shall…hmm?" Dartz gazed up to see three beams of energy circling over Magatsu's head. They then dived down onto him.

"Heh heh, since it's your turn, my Mirage Beams are on the back swing. Since Gearfried stepped onto the field, he's been firing sword beams and with Mirage Knight Zanbato, he creates a mirage beam that then turns solid and phases back into reality to attack my opponent's monster on their turn."

"Is that so?" Dartz asked, as though intrigued.

"Yup, and since Gearfried's holding two weapons, that means you're gonna take three attacks from all the beams he fired since I got him onto the battlefield."

"Well then, let's see if you're right about that."

The beams fired down onto Orichalcos Magatsu, but everyone watched as the being moved so quickly it seemed to become a blur as it dodged each of Joey's attacks.

"Wha…?" Joey gasped.

Dartz chuckled. "Orichalcos Magatsu can only take damage from attacks and counterattacks, not from traps or additional damage special effects. And, since you dared to attack him in the first place, that means he gets to counterattack."

"Bring it!" Joey exclaimed.

"Joey, no!" Yami exclaimed.

Orichalcos Magatsu dashed forward and impaled Gearfried with its weapon, dealing 8,000 damage.

"Eight…thousand…" Hajime gasped.

"Orichalcos Magatsu's counterattack power is rounded up to the nearest thousand based on the maximum amount of damage it would've taken from the last attack or counterattack. It does not have its own set damage for counterattacks. Therefore it is unaffected by multipliers or dividers."

"No…Joey's monster can counterattack as well, which means…"

"A counterattack loop. And in a one for one battle, well, you all know what's about to happen."

"Joey…" Yami gasped softly. No. It couldn't be. Joey was a goner and there wasn't a single thing he could do about it.

"Don't worry, pal," Joey said, balling his fist. "If this is the end, so be it. I'll do what I can and you guys take care of the rest."

"But…"

"But nothing!" Joey shouted. "If this is the way Joey Wheeler goes down, then I ain't goin' down WITHOUT A FIGHT!"

Gearfried, carrying Hermos' fused form, struck back at Orichalcos Magatsu for 4,130 damage, swinging both swords into its face. Orichalcos Magatsu returned the favor by choking up on its weapon and striking Gearfried for 5,000 damage. Gearfried fought back tooth and nail to gain another 4,130 damage on Orichalcos Magatsu. Orichalcos Magatsu struck back again with 5,000 more damage. Joey clutched at his chest. He ordered Gearfried to attack again, dealing another 4,130 damage. Orichalcos Magatsu struck back at Joey's monster for 5,000 more damage directly to his soul.

Sweat dripped down Joey's face as he nodded to Gearfried and three more exchanges of Orichalcos Magatsu and Gearfried the Swordmaster took place. Blades clashed and blows were dealt, resulting in three more blows of full damage to both monsters. Like this, alone, Joey had managed to clear one tenth of Orichalcos Magatsu's health bar. However…

"It seems you've reached your limit Joseph Wheeler," Dartz said to him.

Joey got down onto one knee, clutching at his erratically beating heart, sweat all over his face.

"Joey! Stop! If you keep this up, your lifeforce could be at risk."

"I…don't…care…" Joey said and staggered to his feet. "I got a lot of issue to take with Dartz. For what he did to Mai, for what he did to Ibuki, for what he did to Natsumi, for what he did to the entire world. And I ain't gonna let him push me around. NOBODY MAKES A FOOL OUTTA JOEY WHEELER!"

Dartz was surprised when red energy emitted from Joey's body, almost like ki. It was enough to push Gearfried to a limit enough to strike Orichalcos Magatsu four more times with each sword.

Then, Orichalcos Magatsu simply impaled Gearfried all the way through, causing Joey to cough up blood and collapse on the ground.

"Joey, no!"

Joey coughed a few more times, but nothing came out this time at least.

"It's okay…" He said to Yami. He gave him a tired smile. "I'm gonna be okay." He gave Yami a thumb's up. "You got this, Yug. Don't let that guy…do whatever he…wants."

Joey's arm then fell at his side as his soul too became one with the Orichalcos.

"Joey!" Yami exclaimed. He clenched a fist and then clenched his teeth and then glared at Dartz. He wasn't going to get away with this.

"An unexpected setback, but no matter," Dartz stated. "Now then, I've yet to even properly attack this turn and I think I'll use Orichalcos Magatsu's lightning to attack you, Kaiba."

"Bring it!" Kaiba snarled.

Orichalcos Magatsu raised its weapon to the ceiling and channeled a powerful bolt of lightning into the tip of the blade. Then it thrust the blade forward and blasted Cloned Wind Dragon with 16,200 damage.

Kaiba took a knee. "What…that's…"

"Wind monsters are vulnerable to lightning," Dartz pointed out. "And vice versa of course. It's disappointing that you couldn't merge Critias with something you more malleable. Now you will suffer the consequences."

"Kaiba, are you all right?" Yukizome asked.

"No," Kaiba stated. "I'm not." He could not take another hit like that and he knew it. Worse, it was his turn. I can't believe this. He pushed himself to his feet, breathing ragged. "Yugi…you better not screw this up."

"Place your faith in me, Kaiba," Yami replied.

Kaiba snarled. "Dartz! Just because you defeated me doesn't mean you've won!" Kaiba shouted, drawing a thumb across his neck. "I dedicate this attack knowing that it will be your marked undoing in the long run! Seto Kaiba fears nothing! Cloned Wind Dragon! Attack!"

Cloned Wind Dragon blasted Orichalcos Magatsu for a firm 10,000 damage due to its power advantage.

We're nearly a quarter of the way there, Hajime thought. We have to keep this up.

"Orichalcos Magatsu," Dartz stated. "Finish him."

The monster darted forward and impaled Critias' altered form through the stomach, forcing Kaiba to hold his own stomach as he dropped to one knee, eyes drooping. This was his limit. He'd fought a good battle, but he just couldn't keep it up anymore.

"Yugi…the rest…is up to you. I've…fought too hard…for you to lose. So…win this…"

Kaiba began to keel over, but Yukizome darted over to him to help steady him before Yami could. She then brought Kaiba down gently onto his back.

"You disgust me," she said, glaring at Dartz.

"My dear Chisa Yukizome, you're partly to blame for this tragedy. Take a look. Both young Hajime and the Pharaoh have summoned their dragons, but you've yet to put Iona onto the field."

"I have my reasons," Yukizome said as she slowly stepped back towards her spot on the battlefield on Hajime's left. "I was waiting for you to say that you'd put your final minion onto the field." She turned to face Dartz. "After all, now I know for certain that you don't have any additional tricks up your sleeve. So, as soon as Labrys falls to Magatsu's counterattack, you'll pay dearly!"

"We'll see about that," Dartz said, shrugging off Yukizome's threats. "Pharaoh. It's your turn. Don't keep me in suspense."

Yami growled. "Since Magatsu doesn't appear to be nearly as armored as Arrestarante, that means you're about to feel the full might of my Black Luster Dragon!"

"I can hardly wait," Dartz chuckled.

Yami growled. "Black Luster Dragon! Attack!"

Yami's monster swiped its claws at Orichalcos Magatsu landing a critical hit to the tune of 20,000 points of damage. And, for some reason, Magatsu did not retaliate.

"Ah! Black Luster Dragon nullifies counter attacks!" Hajime exclaimed.

"That's right!" Yami shouted. "And that means I'm not going anywhere any time soon!"

"We'll see about that Pharaoh," Dartz stated.

"Hajime," Yami nodded to his friend.

"Right," Hajime replied and Elemental Lord Dragon started to glow. "I activate a former ability of Elemental Lord Dragon since he was fused using Resurrection Dragon, I can fuse him one more time with a monster that's been destroyed, this time with Blackland Void Dragon!"

Blackland Void Dragon rose up out of the ground with a cry as it was pulled into a light that was emitted from Elemental Lord Dragon's entire body.

"Thus, I will create: Elemental Void Dragon!"

Hajime's dragon's eyes glowed royal blue as its entire body gained a darker hue of gold, two more pitch black wings and lava-like spikes on the sides of its tail, along with two extra horns. A purple jewel embedded itself on Elemental Void Dragon's forehead as all of its back spikes grew to the size of one-foot in length each, thick and hard like crystal, a smoky white essence like the center of a white hole appeared inside each crystal.

"Elemental Void Dragon, attack!" Hajime shouted. "Singularity Destruction Breath!"

Hajime's dragon fired a pure white beam like a white-hot dwarf star's light combined with the already cosmic-like energy of its previously blue beam.

The damage was severe: 12,000 points.

"We're a third of the way there now," Hajime stated.

"You'll not get even halfway on my watch," Dartz stated as Orichalcos Magatsu poised to counterattack Hajime. Hajime faltered backwards, his hair losing its glow for a moment, but he managed to right himself. It seemed even the leftover bits of Izuru had their limits of how much power it could grant him. No, more accurate to say, the more his soul was damaged, the harder it became to access that part of him.

"Hajime, are you all right?" Yukizome asked.

"Never…" Hajime panted. "Better." He then quickly righted himself, the full glow of his awakened state in full swing. As long as he kept up this form, he wasn't going down any time soon, or so he hoped.

"My move," Yukizome stated. "And I'll start by attacking with Artifact Labrys."

Yukizome's monster cut into Dartz for the full 230 points of its attack. Orichalcos Magatsu then retaliated and struck Labrys down, destroying it.

Yukizome hadn't a choice now. She had to summon Iona.

"I call upon the Wing of Iona!" Yukizome exclaimed. Iona's elegant appearance emerged on the battlefield along with a not-so-deafening roar. "And I choose to fuse her with this card," Yukizome said, holding it up. "My Wicked Eraser! Now my monsters! Combine to form Ishtar, the Oni Dragon!"

With purple skin scaled all over a demonic creature with long white hair, barely taller than Yukizome appeared at her side. With red nails, red lips, a long scaly tail and demonic horns that curved twice up above her head, the skimpily clad—in her short red skirt and parlor blouse—elf eared fusion of Iona stepped up onto the battlefield. A powerful aura radiated from her.

"Ishtar!" Yukizome exclaimed. "Attack! DIVINE WRATH!"

Charging a black and purple sphere above her head that crackled with cosmic energy, Ishtar grew it out until it was bigger than Magatsu itself and then threw it at the Orichalcos servant. The blast was all consuming and resulted in 10,000 points of damage.

Orichalcos Magatsu of course, retaliated and struck Ishtar with its weapon, dealing damage directly to Yukizome's soul. Yukizome faltered only for a moment, but stood resolutely otherwise.

And now, it was Dartz's turn. After carefully weighing his options, he decided on what to do. "Orichalcos Magatsu, unleash your bolt of judgment on Elemental Void Dragon!"

BANG!

Hajime's dragon was hit with 8,100 damage. Hajime staggered, panting heavily, but managed to keep his balance. He refused to falter. Yukizome and the Pharaoh needed his support at all costs.

"All right, my move!" Yami bellowed. "I attack with Black Luster Dragon!" Yami's attack hit home, managing to score a critical hit, which mean 4x the usual damage for a total of 20,000.

"We're nearly halfway there," Hajime said. "We just need to keep our momentum going."

"Then do it," Yami said to Hajime.

"Right!" Hajime exclaimed. "Elemental Void Dragon, attack!"

Hajime's dragon unleashed its bright white beam again as it barreled into Orichalcos Magatsu in one, continuous stream. 12,000 points of damage were reduced from Orichalcos Magatsu's health bar. Orichalcos Magatsu then stabbed Hajime's dragon and caused him to stagger back onto one foot, clutching his stomach, his eyes switching back and forth between red and his natural color for nearly 20 seconds before Hajime was able to focus his mind and maintain his current form. However, even now it seemed like he wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer. Even like this, he was panting with exhaustion.

Halfway there, Hajime thought. We just have to keep this up.

"My move," Yukizome said. "And I'll activate Iona's special ability and keep fusing cards to her. This time, to her current form of Ishtar, I add the great power of flame provided by Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju!"

Dogoran appeared with a thunderous roar as Ishtar floated up and back into the creature's body as the two fused together into each other like a singularity, which then exploded into a blast of flame, releasing a winged being with metal-angelic wings. The being still had Ishtar's shape, but her scales were now ignited and burning with mystical magenta fire. Her horns were on fire and so was her tail. Her blouse and skirt were now rigid like metal. Her eyes glowed yellow like the inside of a lantern. It was like an angel, a dragon, and a demon had merged to create this being.

"Behold! Ignited Ishtar! The Angel of Wrath!" Yukizome exclaimed. "Now! Attack with Hellborn Chasm of Fury!"

Ishtar lifted her arms and razed a pillar of cosmic energy below Orichalcos Magatsu, dealing 14,000 points of damage.

"That wasn't very wise Chisa Yukizome," Dartz stated as Orichalcos Magatsu darted towards Yukizome's monster. He watched as sparks flew as the weapons scrapped against Ishtar's tough, ignited scales. The damage output was unbelievably low: 3,500 points. "Impossible!"

"My monster is armored by its scales and its chest," Yukizome said, pointing a thumb at her chest. "You'll find it hard to damage me now."

"That's our Miss Yukizome," Hajime said with a smile.

"Dartz! Give up! There's no way you could possibly hope to take on all three of us!" Yami thundered.

"All three of you? No. But I won't have to," he smiled. "Orichalcos Magatsu, attack young Hajime again!"

A bolt of powerful lightning struck Hajime's dragon as Hajime took a knee, eyes bugging out. He was really pushing himself now. Sweat dripped onto the ground, or maybe it was drool. His vision was, for the moment, too blurry to tell.

"Hajime!" Yami called to him.

Hajime shook his head and just got back on his feet. He was not going down, not yet. He could not give up now. He would not give up now.

"Hajime, you look like you're hitting your limit," Yukizome said in concern.

"Yeah, you're probably right about that," Hajime said, breathing heavily. "But I'm not going down until that bastard forces me down!"

"That can be arranged," Dartz chuckled.

"Hajime isn't going anywhere!" Yami exclaimed. "Not while I'm still standing! Timaeus! Attack!" No such luck with the critical hits this time it seemed. Black Luster Dragon did its normal 5,000 damage.

Hajime panted and then just yelled loudly, indicating for his dragon to attack. And while Yami had failed to get a critical hit, Hajime had succeeded in doing precisely that. 24,000 points of damage were delivered to Orichalcos Magatsu. Unfortunately, that meant Hajime was about to take just as much damage right back. The attack threw him off his feet as he hit the ground on his back.

"Hajime!" Yukizome exclaimed. She made to run over to him, but Hajime was already getting up.

"I…told you," he growled. "If you want me to go down…you're going to have to put me down yourself!" Hajime hobbled back to his initial position, standing hunched over, panting, one eye closed. He could not maintain his bravado for much longer. If Dartz attacked him again, that was the end of it for certain. But, Hajime wanted to prove that he could hang on for that long. He refused to quit.

We Hinatas aren't good for much financially, but we're always reliable…right dad? Hajime thought, recalling the family motto.

Yukizome knew the worst was about to come, but she had no choice, but to keep moving forward. "I'll add another card to the power of Iona!" she declared. "I'm selecting none other than Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

From where Kaiba was collapsed on the ground, the spirit of his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon rose up and then converted itself into a single spiraling twister of energy that shot into Iona in the current form of Ishtar. A powerful blue light gave off as the transformation happened in just that instant. What remained was a three headed humanoid with scales as blue as the sky, ignited with flames and crackling with lightning. It had dragon-like wings that matched that of Blue-Eyes White Dragon perfectly and radiated with a plasma-like aura. The horns on each of its heads were now much shorter dragon horns as they had appeared when Hajime had controlled Elemental Lord Dragon. The being's tail was armored all over like plate metal and its hands were sharp claws like human-sized dragon nails. The heads of each creature had sharp teeth and their eyes were deep royal blue in color. The being had six arms to boot as well as six wings. The hair on the heads of the monster was white like driven snow.

"Behold! Goddess of White Dragons!"

All three heads growled in unison.

"Goddess of White Dragons, unleash your fury! Divine Destruction Burst!"

Creating a ball of destructive energy that was the same size that the previous version of Iona had thrown, Goddess of White Dragons then used her six arms to convert the ball into a concentrated beam that ripped into Orichalcos Magatsu for 22,000 points of damage.

Orichalcos Magatsu darted forward to strike Yukizome's monster, but, much to Dartz's surprise, Yukizome's monster dodged the counterattack as it took flight.

"I'm getting more and more adept against your monster, Dartz," Yukizome said. "Pretty soon, you won't be able to damage my monster at all."

"Hmph, we'll see about that," Dartz stated. "Orichalcos Magatsu! Split your lightning into three! Strike these fools down!"

Green lightning rained down onto Timaeus, Pythagoras, and Iona, dealing 2,700 damage to each of them.

Yami and Yukizome clutched their shoulders, having not expected the multi-attack. Hajime, however, was on the ground.

"Hajime!" Yukizome crouched down at his side, feeling for his pulse, only to realize how silly that was, his hair had stopped glowing. "No…"

Grinding his teeth, Yami thundered, "TIMAEUS! ATTACK!"

Timaeus smashed its claws into Orichalcos Magatsu, dealing another 5,000 damage.

"I…guess it's just us now…" Yukizome said, barely loud enough for Yami to hear.

"Are you going to be all right?" Yami asked.

"No," Yukizome said as she got up and took a step beside Yami, glaring at Dartz, speaking calmly. "I'm angry."

With Hajime down for the count, Yukizome now knew which monster she wanted to fuse next into Iona. "I call upon the power of Blackland Void Dragon!"

Iona's power surged as a black hole seemed to open beneath her, sucking her in. "Behold, the power of the void that everything trembles before," Yukizome stated. "Feel the wrath of the moon devourer! I call upon Bakunawa, Dragon of the Void!"

A gigantic serpentine dragon colored purple and several times Yukizome's sized wrapped around her, giving her a berth of a 3-foot radius in all directions. It was nowhere near as big as Osiris the Sky Dragon, but it was much, much scarier and horrifying to look at it with its sharper, more defined scales, fins-like protrusions jutting off its body and its horrifyingly demonic face, empty orange eyes and its mouth had a sinister orange glow to it. Its short fore arms and fore legs were angled and bent like an insects and both sets of limbs were at opposite ends of its long body. And the whole creature was wreathed in thick shadows.

"And if you think this is bad, just wait until next turn when I add Five Headed Dragon on top of that," Yukizome stated. "Bakunawa! Attack!"

Yukizome's monster unleashed a destructive orange beam that plowed into Magatsu Izanagi with extreme prejudice. 30,000 damage was the result.

Dartz glared as, with but a hand gesture and a grunt, he ordered Orichalcos Magatsu to attack.

However, as it approached Bakunawa, Black Luster Dragon intercepted the attack.

Yami glared. "As long as I'm still standing," he growled under his breath venomously, "You won't hurt anyone else! I SWEAR IT!"

The counterattack really did a number on Yami to the tune of 15,000 damage. Yami was panting heavily.

Dartz chuckled. "Reaching your limit, Pharaoh?"

"Pharaoh, I could've taken it! Why did you do that? That was stupid!" Yukizome chided.

"Like I said, I will not allow Dartz to harm anyone else! Don't forget he can attack us both at the same time!" Yami exclaimed.

"You're right, I can," Dartz chuckled. "But why bother when I can take you out of the picture in one more move!"

Orichalcos Magatsu charged its lightning and struck Timaeus hard for a critical hit.

Yami screamed as Timaeus keeled over, Black Luster Soldier bouncing on the ground and landing faced-won.

"Pharaoh!" Yukizome exclaimed.

Yami crouched on the ground, body numb. The Orichalcos surrounding him.

"So…that's it then."

"YES!" Dartz exclaimed. "Finally! The Pharaoh's soul is mine and with it, the Great Leviathan shall awaken!"

However, Yami got up and staggered towards Yukizome, the seal of the Orichalcos following him.

"It doesn't matter how far you walk away, the Orichalcos will…" Dartz stopped smiling when he saw the Pharaoh reach Yukizome. "Hmm?"

Yami reached up and grabbed the chain of the Millennium Puzzle. "Take…this…" he told Yukizome, placing it in her hands. "Let…it…protect…yooooou…"

Plat!

Yami collapsed on the ground at Yukizome's feet, his soul now appearing on the wall of the Orichalcos. And then…nothing happened.

"I don't understand. The Great Leviathan should be awakening! I have the Pharaoh's soul!"

Yukizome laughed joylessly. "Dartz, you don't get it, do you?"

"Don't get what?" Dartz asked, heart beating a little faster.

The shadows of the room kept Dartz from seeing the expression on Yukizome's face. "The Pharaoh is and was a strong, determined soul, but what you needed wasn't his soul, you needed his power and all of it. And that power, no matter how temporary…" Yukizome said as she tore off her apron. She then undid her hair tie and placed the Millennium Puzzle around her neck. The eye gave off a bright glow, illuminating her as she stepped from out of Bakunawa's protection and crouched down towards the fallen Black Luster Soldier. With but a tap from her finger, he dissipated into light and that light dove on Bakunawa.

"Behold, the power of knowledge! The deceptive tongue that awoke humanity to the truth! The destroyer of paradise! Defiant of God! Nahash Adonai, Serpent of Eden! I call upon your power now!"

Armor pieces among armor pieces attached themselves to Bakunawa, his face becoming more serpentine, fins fading and being covered by armor until finally the creature had Black Luster Soldier's full power at its disposal.

Yukizome's hair fluttered in a breeze created by the Millennium Puzzle. The Pharaoh's will had been entrusted to her. No, the fate of humanity had been heaped upon her shoulders. Iona's will and her Ancient Atlantean magic was awakening within Yukizome, again, however temporary. And she was going see to it that Dartz and his little scheme got crushed under her heeled foot.

She stomped her heel on the floor of the chamber and it echoed in the unlit room. Yukizome's entire body glowed with the light from the Millennium Puzzle as Nahash Adonai aimed its head at Orichalcos Magatsu.

It didn't matter how much stronger Dartz's monster had become. It didn't stand a chance against another attack from Yukizome. But Yukizome wasn't interested in just Yukizome's monster, she was going to shatter Dartz's Seal of Orichalcos, just in case he was lying about this being the last one.

With a firm glare and her arm pointed straight at Dartz and Orichalcos Magatsu, she only gave a one-word command to Nahash Adonai. "Fetch."

Giving off the loudest roar in the entire battle, Nahash Adonai unleashed a golden orange beam that completely disintegrated Orichalcos Magatsu and blasted through Dartz's seal and slammed Dartz against the wall of the chamber as he fell on the ground, dirtying his robe.

"Game over," Yukizome said. "I win."

Dartz grunted as he got to his feet, watching as Nahash Adonai faded into light, but the glow below Yukizome's chest from the Millennium Puzzle did not.

"The souls have not been freed from your grasp," Yukizome stated calmly. "I take it that means that your soul still has some fight left in it."

"Ah, good, that saves me the explanation," Dartz said as he finally loaded his deck into his duel disk. "Shall we?"

"Yes," Yukizome said, holding her hands out. "Let's."

With a clap of her hands, accessing the magic Iona's spirit had given her, the chamber faded into the background, changing the scenery around her and Dartz to that out of outer space.

Dartz looked around, confused.

"I thought that the scenery was getting kind of boring," Yukizome said. "Besides, it's what you wanted too, right?"

Dartz smirked. "Indeed."

Using Iona's magic once more, Yukizome waved her left hand above her shoulder. Cards started flying towards her from her allies, creating a unique deck using the best cards from her friends and allies. She loaded this unique, combined deck into her duel disk.

"It's just like 10,000 years ago, my darling Iona," Dartz stated.

"My name is Chisa Yukizome. You can leave me a message for your long dead wife," Yukizome said contemptuously. She activated her duel disk.

"Hmph, well then, I suppose I—

"No. I'm going first!" Yukizome exclaimed. She held up her fingers like she was going to snap them. "Dartz, you don't get it. I hate this. The sound of my heart in my ears, the fate of the world on my shoulders. All I wanted to be is the nice, kind, all loving motherly person that people can rely on, that people can turn to when their dog chews up their carpet, or their child tracks mud into the house. I'm really not cut out for this hero thing." Her voice was calm and crisp, yet Dartz could hear the animosity behind them. He could feel Yukizome's anger boiling within. "But you pushed me," she said, glaring. "You made me angry. I don't like being angry. Understand?" Dartz felt as though Yukizome had slashed him from shoulder to hip with an invisible sword. "We played your game. Now we play ours. Mine, my friends' the game the world cherishes. I beat you at your game and now I'm going to school you in mine."

"And know this Dartz, by the end of this duel, you'll be crying your eyes out to your daddy. Like a little," she tightened her gaze, "bitch!" Only then did Yukizome snap her fingers and the top six cards of her deck magically appeared in them. Both duelist's life points racked up to 4,000.

Dartz had made his bed. Now he was going to sleep in it. It was just him and Yukizome now. All or nothing. The battle for everyone's souls had begun and Yukizome was making no compromises. She would save the world and she would make sure Dartz understood that he messed with the wrong redhead.

---

(A/N: Ohhhhhhh SNAP! Literally…sort of. Well, who could've predicted this outcome? That's right? Chisa Yukizome Vs Dartz. One on one. No holds barred. Combo deck Vs Orichalcos deck. Iona's spirit is fueling Yukizome's tranquil rage. Can the world's Ultimate Housekeeper overcome Dartz's incredibly broken Orichalcos deck by herself? Well, thanks to Iona, she is packing all five dragons in her deck and she's also got Legend of Heart buried somewhere in there as well.

If the "game" I came up with felt strangely arbitrary, that's cause some of it was. I had to take many breaks, that's why some of it looks like it was summarized. I mean shit, if I kept announcing every attack I would have gone crazy. You guys got the meat and potatoes of the situation anyway right now. Thank god that this chapter did not exceed 26,000 words or I would've just split it in half. Amusingly enough, this is the longest chapter in the fic where no canon content is included. The other three longest chapters deal with Yugi's first canon duel with Rafael, Kaiba and Yugi's duel in Battle City and Yugi's duel with Joey when under mind control.

Apologies if the game got confusing, long, boring or any number of negative things. I really don't know what to say, other than that Yukizome has gotten out her broom: the broom of sweeping XD.

And yes, I know Yukizome didn't use the cards Nagito gave her. I'm saving that ;D. Trust me, there's more cool shit to come next chapter. Until then, as always, from all of me, to all of you, let your hearts stay human and your wrath draconic. Ja ne!)