Author's note: Any cards highlighted in bold are not actual Yugioh cards.
Chapter 12: Gate of Pride
"Ah, I see it is time for revenge!" Beast shouted. "I think I'll go first."
When we all activated our Duel Disks, he drew and summoned Exarion Universe (1800/1900), played Double Summon and Summoned Vorse Raider (1900/1200). After that, he couldn't attack, so he let me take over. I just placed four cards face-down. Dancer was the next one to move, summoning Etoile Cyber (1200/1600) and played Polymerization to fuse it with the Blade Skater in her hand and summon Cyber Blader (2100/800). Carnivore was the next to go, Special Summoning a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her hand, then summoning a Babycerasaurus (500/500). She ended with two face-down cards.
The Beast started his turn summoning a Gene-Warped Warwolf (2000/100), playing Double Summon and summoning Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000). From there, he activated the Field Spell Sogen, increasing the ATK and DEF of all Beast-Warrior monsters by 200 points, followed by the Equip Spell Mystical Moon on the Gene-Warped Warwolf, increasing its ATK and DEF by 300. Its stats were now (2500/600), and Beast directed it to attack the Babycerasaurus, but I triggered Negate Attack, stopping the attack and ending the Battle Phase. With nothing else to do, Beast played Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six card hand and ended his turn.
My turn, I revealed Solemn Wishes as I drew, and gained 500 Life Points for our team to come to 8500. I activated my Guardian Treasure, discarding five cards to draw two cards and earn the right to draw two cards from then on. Disgraceful Charity revealed itself then, returning the cards to my hand. At that point, I played my Burning Land, destroying the Field Spell that Beast played and forcing everyone to take damage during their Standby Phases. I then activated my Partner's Gift Normal Spell Card, allowing me to select one card in my Deck and activate it on my partner's side of the field, choosing another Solemn Wishes. At least that way we wouldn't be affected by Burning Land. I placed one card face down alongside my fourth unrevealed card and ended my turn.
When Dancer made her move, her team's Life Points decreased to 7500 due to Burning Land. Since we only had two monsters out, the Cyber Blader's ATK was doubled to 4200. She attacked, but that was when I revealed one of my face-downs, Back Attack Ambush. This immediately stopped the attack and, since my opponents controlled five monsters, Special Summoned five Ambush Tokens. I also gained the option of Tributing them to deal 500 damage to their team per token, which I did, bringing them down to 5000 Life Points. Dancer ended her turn there.
"Hah! Beautiful!" Carnivore shouted as she drew. Due to the Solemn Wishes I placed on her field, the damage she took from Burning Land was negated when she drew. From there, she used Polymerization to fuse the Gilasaurus on her field with the Kaitoptera in her Hand to create Horned Saurus (2000/1000). After that, she Summoned Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000), played Graceful Charity to draw three and discard two, followed by a second Graceful Charity, again drawing three and discarding two. Eight counters suddenly appeared on her egg, after which she Tributed it to Summon Ultimate Tyranno (3000/2200). The Battle Phase arrived, and Carnivore had to attack first with her Tyranno and had to target all enemy monsters once. First, she targeted the Gene-Warped Warwolf with 2300 ATK. Beast's team was down to 4700 Life Points. Then it was the Vorse Raider, knocking them down to 3600, then the Enraged Battle Ox which was destroyed, bringing them down to 2300. The second to last thing to go was the Exarion Universe, bringing them down to 1100 Life Points and finally, the Cyber Blader, which, since there were now three monsters, had its ATK returned to normal. It was destroyed and the controllers left on 200 Life Points, but then, with a clear field, Horned Saurus could attack directly, wiping them out.
"Hah! Killed in round two!" Carnivore taunted. With their defeat, Beast and Dancer gave up their Key, which we immediately inserted into the Lock that said 'R1' since we were on the red corner for that Duel. As the Door opened, we were presented with a corridor. Walking into the corridor, we saw at the end another Key. This one had been marked with the number 2, and above its original position, we could see a monitor. On this, it featured above each square with the numbers 1 through 16, we could see eight larger squares connected directly to the tops of each smaller square such that one large square stood on two small squares. Looking at the Large Square encompassing Squares 7 and 8, we saw that there was a diagonal line bisecting the Square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left. The top-left half was colored green, while the bottom-right half was colored red. Some squares just remained grey, though.
It occurred to me that this seemed to be a progress chart. From the eight Large Squares, a line sprouted off from the top horizontal line to join to one of four similar cubes on a second level such that there were two lines joined to each cube from the sides. From there, it became two, and then one.
So far, some of the results were intriguing. In the other Matches of this War, it looked like Cellblock 3 had beat Cellblock 4, as there was that diagonal line where the top left half was green and the other red, and Cellblock 15 had also won. The doors to the next Arena, however, wouldn't open until the conclusion of our opponent's Match. The Square on the screen above numbers 5 and 6 were still grey. However, after a bit more time, a diagonal line appeared, joining the top left and bottom right corners and bisecting the square. The top right half was colored green, while the other red, and that could only have meant one thing: Rebecca won her Duel since she was Cellblock 6, most likely.
From there, the doors to the next Arena opened, and the Square connecting us on the screen turned from black to grey. As we walked out into the Arena, I could soon see that it was indeed Rebecca that had pulled through… along with the girl Sky Fairy.