A/N: As always, I don't own the rights to Yu-Gi-Oh! Thank you lalalei and kazikamikaze24 for your reviews! It means a lot!

King Merobos III was interrupted from taking a bite out of the screaming woman placed before him as the doors to the throne room flung open.

Annoyed, he turned his gaze to the beastman who had dared to interrupt a feast like this- it was Captain Barbaros.

He calmed himself down. Although Barbaros was the weakest of the three duelists within the tribe of the Merobonians, he was still an extremely valuable asset and King Merobos III could not dispose of him. Also, if he was interrupting the king, the captain must've had a good reason to do so.

"What is the meaning of this interruption?" King Merobos III asked.

"My liege," Barbaros replied. "The humans have sent a duelist. I was defeated in a duel against him."

Kinge Merobos III immediately forgot about his meal. "What?! Impossible!"

The whole reason the Merobonians had chosen this specific city to attack was because they were sure that their victory would be unopposed. The humans had been weak, but they had still outnumbered the beastmen twenty to one during the initial assault. However, no other human city could come to the humans' aid, as the other cities would be bogged down by assaults from other races.

"How many soldiers?" the king demanded to know. Whispers were being muttered across the room from his other tribesmen. He had stationed guards- it should've been impossible for the humans to have brought a large force before the city without them knowing about it sooner. He motioned for the woman to be gagged as her screams were getting annoying.

"Just one," Barbaros replied. "A single duelist."

King Merobos III couldn't understand what had just been said. His mind couldn't comprehend it. The other tribesmen had started laughing at Barbaros's ridiculous answer, but he silenced the room with a wave of his hand.

"A single duelist?" King Merobos III asked.

"Yes," Barbaros replied.

"And, if you were defeated, how are you still here then?" King Merobos III asked.

"The human let me live," Barbaros said bitterly. "He sent me as a messenger to fetch you to him."

The king couldn't process these events. From any angle that he approached them, the whole situation was downright bizarre.

Just then, one of the castle guards approached the room. "My liege! There is a human duelist approaching this castle!"

The king growled. There was nothing the guards could do against such a foe.

"Let him in then," the king said and stood proudly before his tribe. He had already proved his valor a hundred times over, and now, he would do it again.

Seto Kaiba was in a strange land, and he still didn't know where his brother was or where he himself was for that matter. It was possible his brother had been kidnapped by forces unknown.

But, still, he didn't feel like running, and so he decided to walk briskly towards the castle.

Come to think about it, Seto Kaiba was surprised by how easy it was to walk towards and into the castle.

Normally, he would've expected to be challenged by at least twelve chump duelists in a row before facing the main boss given that was how games worked, but whatever, he couldn't really complain about that.

What he could complain about though was the scenery.

Seto Kaiba didn't consider himself to be a squeamish person, but the moment he saw the humans in the places where he was walking he averted his eyes.

They had all been stripped naked and had been chained by these strange beast-centaur things with collars around their necks. The beast-centaurs didn't do anything to stop him and only glared at him as he made his way towards what he guessed was the boss room.

Anyway, he wasn't one to kink shame other people, but what kind of degenerates were the game developers of this game? They seemed to be into furry BDSM given the sights that Seto was seeing. It honestly did rattle him more than he'd have liked to admit.

Also, he was surprised that whoever had kidnapped him hadn't sent him a message yet. He had not received any threats, or statements from people saying that they had kidnapped Mokuba. [He wasn't sure that Mokuba had been kidnapped too, but as he thought about it, based on experience, it was probably likely.]

Inside the castle he saw similar sights with humans bound in various positions. He tired to put those things out of his head.

Finally, he reached what he guessed was the throne room. It was huge, and there were hundreds of beast-centaurs gathered in the room. It also had more humans than he had seen anywhere else, but these humans weren't just stripped naked and chained, they were also tied up.

Seto Kaiba tried to not look at them directly. He doubted even Joey Wheeler was this into things like this.

Again, he wasn't one to kink shame other people- he had seen some very odd fetishes while doing business, but this was something that went too far for him.

Standing near the throne was a beast-centaur that Seto guessed was the boss. The reason for this was the beast-centaur's clothes. Most of the beat-centaurs wore nothing or had just simple leather armor on, with a few of them having metal plate armor to cover parts of their bodies.

This one however was covered in a very ornate golden breastplate, and wore a flowing crimson cape which was the color of blood. He had a crown on his head- but it was far too small for him to wear and he had jammed it over his right ear. Come to think of it, it would've probably fit a human head rather than that of a beastman. He was holding a human skull in his hand out of which he drank. He wasn't the largest of all the beastmen, but Seto would've still bet a huge sum that this was the boss just based on his equipment.

All eyes turned to Seto, and Seto tried to concentrate on the boss. He did not want to focus on the humans.

"Ah yes, welcome, human," the boss spoke. "I am King Merobos III, and I am the ruler of the tribe known as the Merobonians. We Merobonians, we who are elites even amongst the other beastmen, who have conquered this city."

He looked at Seto and laughed. It was a rough hee-haw that grated on Seto's ears. "It looks like this human has some fat on him!"

"Hey, there's no need for body shaming," Seto blurted out defensively. He didn't think he was too fight- granted, he didn't have six pack abs or anything like that, and he had put on a few pounds since Battle City had ended given how much time he spent in front of a computer rather than exercising, but by no one's standards could he be called 'fat.' At least, not yet.

"Ah," the boss said. "You see human, we Merobonians are a proud race of warriors who easily defeated the humans within this city despite being outnumbered twenty to one. The gods have blessed us with superior might as compared to humans! You will soon see the prowess of our tribe who-"

'Oh no,' Seto thought. 'He's monologuing!'

There was no 'skip cutscene' option, but Seto had zoned out as the boss kept on talking and that was, in a way, a sort of real life 'skip cutscene' button. He knew he probably should've paid attention in case something important was say, but with the way the boss kept droning on and on he really couldn't help but doze off.

He noticed that all of them were suddenly looking at him- and he realized that the boss must've asked him a question.

"Eh, could you repeat that? I wasn't paying attention." Seto said.

There were roars from all across the room.

"Such insolence!"

"Kill him!"

"You dare speak like that to our king, human?"

The boss just narrowed his eyes though. "I asked for your name human- and unless you wish to die an unnamed maggot you will tell me it."

"Seto Kaiba," Kaiba responded.

The boss scratched his chin. "I must say I have never heard of a duelist by that name- then again I am unfamiliar with the names of most human duelists. However, the humans of this city never said that you would be coming to save them, neither do you appear to have any vassals within this city."

Kaiba really didn't understand what he meant by that last sentence.

"Whatever. Are you ready to duel or not?"

The boss narrowed his eyes further and roared. "Very well human! I will crush you like the maggot you are! Humans are a weak species, and you should know to bend the knee to those stronger than you such as ourselves! The strong do what they will, and the weak suffer what they must! You will die in vain as I, King Merobos, third of my name, shall defeat you and inflict upon you a fate worse than-"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. This guy was monologuing. Again.

And Seto had had a lifetime's worth of villains monologuing uselessly.

The duel started, and as was true last time, Seto knew about his life points, the cards in his hands, the number of cards left in his deck, the graveyard, the number of cards in his opponent's hand, the number of cards in his opponent's deck, and his opponent's life points.

All of this info was fed directly to him via his brain and it didn't seem like it was visible to anyone else, but the monsters he summoned would appear in front of him and he guessed that other people could see them.

"I'll let you go first as a final act of mercy," King Merobos III said.

Kaiba glanced at his hand. He frowned.

He had 8,000 life points and his opponent had only 3,000. This was still a step up from that earlier duel where he fought someone who had 1,500 life points, but it bothered him that his opponents didn't start out with a full set of life points.

It was then that something occurred to him- what if it wasn't possible to gain back your life points in this world? Normally after finishing a duel one's life points would reset, but what if this world operated on different rules and one had to continue on with the remainder of the life points one had? The first time he had been locked up in a virtual world by the Big Five had been in a game like that.

He didn't have any cards that restored life points- which bothered him greatly. That would explain why he had such a high life point pool at the very beginning of the game. He would have to get cards that restored life points from somewhere if that were the case.

"What are you waiting for, human?" King Merobos III spat out. "I know that you must be trembling in your boots, but stall as much as you want, your death will still come!"

"I summon Kaiser Seahorse in attack mode!" Seto said and a monster with 1800 attack came to the field. "I then set a face-down and end my turn."

"I see," the boss said. "I can see how you managed to best my captain- with a card like that you're far more capable than the human king of this city and his Neo The Magic Sowrdsman. Granted, you're lucky you drew your ace on the first turn, but sadly for you, I too drew my most powerful card! Arise! Berserk Gorilla!"

"Oh no," Kaiba moaned and the boss jeered, assuming that Kaiba had lost all hope.

The other beastmen began hollering as well in excitement, but the truth was that Kaiba had thought that it would have been too corny to have a beastman use a Beast deck, but apparently the game designers had gone with it anyway.

There was one beastman who did not cheer though- it was Barbaros, but Seto was not paying attention to that of course.

"Ha!" the boss said. "Behold, the pride of the Merobonians! The card that helped us stave off the legions of the Troll Nation when they had attacked us! The card that shall be your doom!"

As Seto looked at the monster, he somehow instantly knew what its effect was just by looking at it, much like how he knew how many cards he had in his hand.

And thankfully, Berserk Gorilla had the same effect in this game as it had in the real world.

"I attack with Berserk Gorilla!" the boss said.

"I activate Enemy Controller," Seto said with a yawn. "With that, I change Berserk Gorilla to defense mode, and its effect means that it is destroyed."

Berserk Gorilla vanished from the field, and the hollering died down.

"W-what?" the boss exclaimed. "Grr... I have been done in by trickery! I end my turn!"

Seto frowned. Why hadn't he set a Trap or Spell given that his field was wide open? Did he have something in his hand? While the crowd looked tense, they didn't seem to be thinking that the boss would lose the very next turn.

Regardless though, Seto Kaiba's deck was one that powered through an opponent's defenses as quickly as possible and so the only real option he had was to go ahead and attack.

He could've summoned an Archfiend Soldier and finished him off with two hits, but he had a Blue Eyes in his hand, and Kaiser Seahorse had the same effect in this world as it did in the real world.

He smiled. Given a chance to win with his ace or with another monster, he would always choose showing off his ace.

"I tribute Kaiser Seahorse, and with its special ability I can count it as two tributes for a Light monster," Seto said. "And I summon! The Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

The glorious monster stood so tall it scraped the ceiling above.

All around him, there were gasps from the audience.

"Impossible!"

"Three thousand attack! No way!"

Huh, so they could see the monsters on the field and their attack points then.

But none of them shouted as loudly as the boss.

"No way!" he screamed in denial. His eyes had widened, and his body began shivering. "A Dragon of that power- no, it has never been seen before! Such a thing can exist only in legends!"

He stared at Kaiba. Kaiba couldn't read the expressions of beastmen as well as he could those of humans, but fear was a universal emotion. "Impossible! You are no human! You can't be! If the humans had a duelist this strong, we would have never made it this far into this country! You must be a god! That's right- you are a dragon god of old in human form!"

Seto Kaiba frowned. He enjoyed the praise his monster was getting, but did they really just call him a 'god?' I mean, sure the Blue Eyes was great, but he hadn't even used any of his other special cards though.

Judging from his opponent's reaction, he had nothing to stop Kaiba from wiping out his life points.

Of course, this could've just been a trap for Kaiba, but Kaiba knew of no traps that could be activated from one's hand.

"Blue Eyes! Finish him off!"

The Blue Eyes let out a torrent of white energy with dropped the boss's life points from 3,000 to 0 with a single blow.

And with that, Seto had won.

King Merobos III had no idea what had just happened.

"Barbaros!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, searching for an outlet to vent his frustration on. "You did not tell me this human had such a monster!"

How could anyone have a monster that powerful? The king had assumed that Kaiser Seahorse was Kaiba's ace monster, but that dragon...

He had never seen a monster like that. The very air trembled around the majestic sight of the dragon, and though it was a terrifying creature to see, he could not but help feel awed by it. And it was eight stars as well!

Impossible, he thought again. Even the ancient demon lord had been able to use a six star monster at most- meaning that this human's power surpassed that of even the demon lord of legend!

As far as his intelligence network had told him, the humans had only one duelist among them who could use a five star monster. He had been astonished at hearing this, but when he had learned it was a Curse of Dragon which equalled his Berserk Gorilla in attack power he was put at ease because he knew that as things were, that duelist would be too preoccupied up north to be able to face them.

Tears began to trickle down his face. How had it come to this?

Why? Why had fate done something like this to him? He had ruled as a king should have- but why had the gods abandoned him and cursed him with defeat?

Nowhere had it ever been told that the humans possessed such frightening power.

No, a person of this power should not have existed in this world.

All of his subjects had similar forlorn looks as he did on their faces. They knew death was coming to them.

After a duel, the winning duelist could not only kill his enemy, but any vassals that his enemy controlled. As it stood, nearly all of his countrymen were his vassals. Even those who would survive would no doubt be hunted by the monsters that this duelist would summon.

Given all this- there was only one option left for him.

"Ah, Master Seto Kaiba," he said and bowed his head. Now was not the time for humility- it was the time to beg for his life and those of his tribesmen.

He had no qualms with dying himself, but he could not as a leader let his whole tribe be wiped out with him.

"I beg for your forgiveness for opposing you. If you will please spare the lives of this foolish one and his minions, we shall be your loyal slaves until the very end of time. We shall grind our bodies into dust serving Your Majesty."

As long as they lived, he figured, there would be a chance they could grow in power, and perhaps, one day, defeat this human.

But now was the time to bend the knee.

"Where is Mokuba?" the man replied.

The king did not know what to respond with. Was Mokuba a magic item? A country? Or a person?

"Pardon me, lord, but this one does not know what a 'Mokuba' is, though if you would be kind enough to enlighten me, I and my tribe shall endeavor to locate it," the king answered hesitantly.

"Oh, he's my little brother," the man replied.

A chill ran down the king's spine. They had killed four out of five humans in this city. If this man's brother had been one of them- no! That made no sense at all. Surely if this man had a brother, a brother would have been made into a vassal of his and would've been protected by the ancient laws applying to duelist vassals!

And, come to think of it, as the king studied this human's face he realzied that this human had slightly different features that the humans of this city. He couldn't be 100% sure, but perhaps this human was of a different breed than those of this city. It was hard to tell given that he wasn't too confident with recognizing human features.

"Pardon me, but I do not believe your brother is within this city," the king answered.

"Then I have no use for you," Kaiba replied and another chill went down the king's spine. "Get out of my face right now!"

The king's ears perked up. What was this? Were they being allowed to run away?

It was something too good to be true, yet the king did not question it.

"Very well then, we shall get out of your way, Master Kaiba," the king said and motioned for his tribesmen to leave.

Unlike Barbaros before, the Merobonians made no attempt to seem as if they were marching away slowly on their business as usual.

They made no attempt to preserve their pride. As a matter of fact, they fled leaving the wounded of their tribe behind and forgotten, and the wounded were forced to limp after the main body of the fleeing beastmen.

Seto Kaiba had no idea why the beastmen had run away like that. And why was the boss begging for his life? Even if Seto used his full strength, there was no way he'd be able to kill someone like that.

And why had they all ran if all that had happened was that one of them had lost a children's card game against him? Oh well, this was a video game, so he guessed there wasn't that much logic too it in the first place. He guessed all things were solved with duels here.

Granted, the real world where he came from was a lot like that, but fistfights and battles with real weapons were also common back home and one couldn't rely on just his cards for protection. Cards could be stolen with force, after all.

But whatever- it didn't seem like Mokuba was here, and the boss hadn't recognized Seto. Meaning that those beastmen hadn't been working for whoever had brought him into this world.

He closed his eyes. He still had 8,000 life points. He felt like he should have taken some damage in that duel, he thought, so he could test if he could somehow get life points back once he had won. If they did not go back to 8,000 he would have to get cards that would restore his life points somehow, like Solemn Wishes. He disliked decks that relied on healing one's own life points as he detested stall decks in general, but he might need a few such cards if he was going to keep dueling here.

But that raised further questions in his head. The enemies he had defeated in a duel had not dropped anything like gold or silver coins which he could then later use to buy cards, nor had they dropped any precious loot like card packs or simple cards. And they had not played using ante rules so Kaiba didn't get a card like that either.

Plus, given how cards didn't have physical form in this world- just how were they sold?

He closed his eyes and none of his stats had a marker for something that resembled money.

Oh well, he would figure that one out later.

As he looked around the room though, he suddenly face-palmed as he realized something when he remembered what that boss had told him.

The beastmen had conquered this city and were keeping the humans as captives! This wasn't someone's sick fetish!

"Oh... but then why did they- oh, it was to eat them! And that's why he was laughing when he said I had some fat on me..." Seto moaned and was glad he had never said anything regarding his earlier thoughts out loud. That would've been far too embarrassing.

A/N: Thanks for reading guys! As always, drop a review if you liked this, and any questions you might have.