Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.

Chapter 24: Evolving Battle

"I end my turn." Yuma announced. "It's your move, Hikari. Show me and Astral what you can really do."

Hikari drew her next card. "I summon Junk Blader in Attack Mode!" The stardust heiress's purple swordsman appeared on the battlefield. "Next I play the Spell card, Emergency Teleport and summon Krebons!" With a flash of yellow light, Hikari's jester-like Tuner appeared next to Junk Blader. "Now I tune the level two Krebons into the level four Junk Blader for a level six Synchro Summon!"

Krebons flashed orange and became two rings made of green light. The rings encircled Junk Blader and transformed him into four white stars.

"Clustering stars come together to signal the arrival of an unstoppable fighter! Create the path its light shines upon!" Hikari chanted. "Synchro Summon! Rise up! Mighty Warrior!"

The stars flashed and became a pillar of white light that shot into the sky. The light quickly faded to reveal Hikari's cybernetic warrior.

"I activate the effect of Blazer Aura and reduce Stardust Dragon's level by one to increase his ATK to 3700!" Hikari announced.

The silvery aura that Stardust Dragon was giving off began to glow brighter. The dragon's eyes flashed blue as it roared at Lancelot.

"Why did Hikari only drop Stardust Dragon's level by one?" Yuma asked. "If she had dropped it by four, he'd be a lot more powerful."

"I do not think that powering up Stardust Dragon's attack is Hikari's primary goal." Astral told him. "Yuma, if we can survive this attack, we must take down Mighty Warrior at our first opportunity."

"If you say so." Yuma replied.

"Stardust, take down Lancelot!" Hikari ordered. "Blazing Sonic!"

Stardust Dragon opened his jaws and sent forth a powerful blast of silvery light. Lancelot was hit in the chest and his body shattered into particles of light. Yuma's life points took a drop to 1600.

"Mighty Warrior! Attack Yuma directly!" Hikari commanded. "Mighty Knuckle!"

"Not so fast, Hikari!" Yuma spoke as Mighty Warrior dashed across the stage. "Since I'm being attacked directly, I summon Gagaga Guardna in Defense Mode!"

Just as Mighty Warrior was about to hit Yuma with his mechanical fist a humanoid figure suddenly appeared between him and his target. He was clad in a long black coat over grey chest armor, along with black gloves and long black jeans. An orange bandanna covered the lower half of his face, and atop his head was a black and grey helmet with goggles on it. In his left hand, the warrior carried a large black and orange shield with pointed yellow stripes on the lower half.

"Since you can prevent Gagaga Guardna from being destroyed in battle, it'd be kinda pointless to try attacking you now." Hikari realized. "I'll just end my turn."

Yuma drew his next card. "First I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"

A twister of wind picked up on Hikari's side of the field around her large set Trap card and caused it to shatter to bits.

"Next I activate Monster Reborn and summon Gagaga Magician back from the Graveyard!" Yuma continued. With a flash of white light, Yuma's silver-haired magician reappeared on the battlefield. "Using the level four Gagaga Magician and Gagaga Guardna, I build the overlay network and Xyz Summon Number 39: Utopia!"

A vortex in the form of a galaxy appeared in the middle of the battlefield and pulled in Yuma's two monsters as balls of yellow energy. Seconds later, a large white and gold sword with two balls of gold light orbiting around it rose from the center of the vortex and transformed into Yuma and Astral's ace monster.

"I summon Goblindberg in Attack Mode!" Yuma announced. "And when Goblindberg is summoned, I can summon another level four monster from my hand! So I also summon Gogogo Golem!"

Flying down from above in a small red and yellow prop plane piloted by a green goblin wearing a brown aviator jacket along with a red helmet with goggles and two small yellow horns sticking out the top. Dangling from below the plane by metal cables was a large hexagonal metal box. The box dropped to the ground with a thud and fell apart to reveal Yuma's blue golem inside. The goblin pilot then landed on the ground next to the golem.

"Using the level four Gogogo Golem and Goblindberg, I build the overlay network and Xyz Summon Number 52: Diamond Crab King!" Yuma announced.

Another galaxy-like vortex appeared in the center of the battlefield and pulled in the two monsters Yuma selected as balls of yellow energy. Moments later, a blue crystal with two balls of blue energy orbiting around it rose out of the center and transformed into Yuma's giant blue crab.

"I activate Diamond Crab King's effect!" Yuma announced. "By detaching one of his overlay units, Diamond Crab King's ATK and DEF are switched until the end of the turn!"

One of the balls of light orbiting the crab entered the giant crystal growing out of his back. Soon after, the color of the crab's eyes began to glow and his body changed from blue to red.

"Diamond Crab King, attack Mighty Warrior!" Yuma commanded. "Diamond Bubble!"

The crab fired a barrage of glowing bubbles across the battlefield at Mighty Warrior. The cybernetic fighter was hit in the chest by the attack and his body shattered into particles of light. Hikari's life points dropped to 1200.

"Diamond Crab King switches to Defense Mode at the end of the Battle Phase." Yuma announced. "I'll set one card on the field and end my turn."

As soon as Yuma's turn ended, Diamond Crab King's eyes stopped glowing and his body changed back from red to blue.

"Nicely done, Yuma." Astral praised.

"Thanks, but what was the point of taking down Mighty Warrior?" Yuma asked.

"Think about it, Yuma. What might the point be of Hikari reducing the level of Stardust Dragon?" Astral asked.

"The only reason I could think if would be if she… wait! Are you saying that Hikari was planning to use Stardust Dragon to Synchro Summon a more powerful monster?" Yuma realized.

"Precisely. And if I'm right, Mighty Warrior was an important key to that summoning." Astral answered. "Hopefully that by defeating that monster, we've just derailed Hikari's strategy."

Hikari calmly drew her next card. "I summon Mono Synchron in Attack Mode!"

Appearing on the battlefield was a small green and yellow robot. On the end of each of its arms in place of a hand was a large red stamp of the number one.

"Since I now control a Tuner monster, I can summon Quillbolt Hedgehog back from the Graveyard!" Hikari continued.

A dog-sized creature resembling a hamster appeared on the stage next to Mono Synchron. It's back was covered with large grey metal bolts.

"Wait. When was Quillbolt Hedgehog ever in the Graveyard?" Yuma asked.

"She must have discarded it when she summoned The Tricky earlier in the duel." Astral deduced.

"When I perform a Synchro Summon using Mono Synchron as the Tuner, the other monster used as material becomes a level one." Hikari announced. "I tune the level one Mono Synchron into the now level one Quillbolt Hedgehog for a level two Synchro Summon!"

Mono Synchron fired a beam of red light from one of the stamps on his arms, causing a red number one to appear on the creature's cheek. The green and yellow robot changed into a ring of green light that encircled Quillbolt Hedgehog, transforming it into a single white star.

"Clustering wishes will call out a new speed's horizon! Become the path its light shines upon!" Hikari chanted. "Synchro Summon! The power of hope, Synchro Tuner, Formula Synchron!"

The white star flashed and became a horizontal beam of white light. The light quickly faded to reveal a small robot that resembled a green, white and red racecar. It had blue and white arms with black hands extending from its back wheels, and a pair of blue and white legs on its underside. The head inside the car's cockpit wore a blue helmet.

"Because I just summoned Formula Synchron, I get to draw a card!" Hikari announced. After drawing her new card, she smirked. "I activate the card I just drew, Monster Reborn and summon Mighty Warrrior back from the Graveyard!"

Hikari's cybernetic warrior reappeared on the field with a flash of white light.

"It appears we were unsuccessful in disrupting Hikari's strategy." Astral observed.

"Now to show you what I've really got." Hikari declared. "I tune the level two Formula Synchron into the level four Stardust Dragon and the level six Mighty Warrior for a level twelve Synchro Summon!"

Hikari closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Suddenly the wind began to swirl around her feet.

"O stars who color the ancient skies! Become the divine rain and purify the world!" Hikari began to chant. "Delta Accel!"

Suddenly Hikari's three monsters took off in a streak of pinkish light that flew out of the stadium. A split second later, the same light came back from behind Hikari and stopped with a dazzling explosion. The light faded, and hovering over the field was a sleeker version of Hikari's Shooting Star Dragon. He had ten wings on his back and a blue gem embedded in his forehead. Similar gems adorned the dragon's chest and the front of his knees. The entire audience was left in awe of the dragon's appearance.

"Be born, Stardust Sfir Spark Dragon!" Hikari called.

"That is one impressive-looking dragon." Kaito remarked up in the skybox. "I had no idea she had anything like that in her deck."

"Indeed. Such a dragon looks like it would make a worth opponent for my Tachyon." Mizael admitted.

"You and Astral should feel honored, Yuma." Hikari told him. "I don't use Delta Accel like this very often. In fact my dad was never able to pull a Synchro Summon like this off."

"We are honored Hikari. It means that you're taking Astral and me seriously." Yuma replied.

"However, the fact that you summoned this dragon does not mean your victory is assured." Astral added. "Yuma and I can still use Utopia's effect to block your attack."

"Actually you can't, since one per turn I can use Stardust Sfir's effect to negate the effect of a monster and destroy it." Hikari revealed. "But I won't even have to do that in this case, since now I activate another effect of Blazer Aura from the Graveyard! When Blazer Aura is in the Graveyard, I can equip it to a Dragon-type Synchro Monster I control!"

With that, Stardust Sfir's eyed began to glow blue and his body gave off a dazzling silvery aura.

"This means her dragon can destroy our Numbers in battle!" Yuma realized.

"I now activate Blazer Aura's main effect and reduce his level by five to raise his ATK from 4000 to 5500!" Hikari announced. The dragon roared and the aura his body was giving off began to shine even brighter. "Stardust, attack Utopia! Divine Blazing Light!"

"I activate my Trap! Moon Barrier!" Yuma quickly announced. "By detaching one of Utopia's overlay units, I can negate Stardust Sfir's attack!"

Stardust Sfir opened his mouth and fired a dazzling beam of light across the field towards Utopia. Before the beam could strike though, one of the balls of light orbiting around the armored warrior vanished and one of his wings unfolded around him into a shield that blocked the dragon's attack.

"You activated Utopia's effect without actually activating it." Hikari observed. "Nice one."

"Thanks." Yuma responded. "You almost had me there."

"Well, you may have survived that attack, but this is far from over." Hikari told him. "I'll end my turn there."

"Okay Astral, how do we take down Hikari's dragon?" Yuma asked.

"We have most of what we need on the field, but we're going to need a bit more." Astral answered. "If we're going to win this duel, you and I must join together."

"You mean…?" Yuma began to ask.

"Hikari is giving us everything she has. I suggest we do the same." Astral replied.

"Okay then. Let's do it!" Yuma decided.

Suddenly Yuma turned into a ball of red light that shot into the air while Astral turned into a ball of blue light that followed him close behind. The two lights shot away from each other in opposite directions only to come back around in a circle and collide into each other an explode. The smoke soon cleared to reveal Yuma in a new form. His hair had become gold and red and had taken on the shape of a flame. Much of his body had become covered in ornate gold and white armor that shinned with a brilliant light, and on his back was a pair of white and gold metal wings similar to Utopia's. The audience was dazzled by this transformation. Even the referee's jaw had dropped at this display.

"Wow! You two really are going all out." Hikari observed. "But aren't you concerned about using this ZEXAL power of yours in public like this?"

"Nah. We used it before when we dueled Mr. Arclight during the World Duel Carnival, and nobody really asked me about how I did it." Yuma answered. "The important thing you need to know right now though Hikari is that Astral and I aren't going to be holding anything back anymore."

"Then show me what you got." Hikari dared.

"You asked for it!" Yuma responded as he drew his next card. The card he pulled from the deck gave off a flash of gold light. "Because I have two Number monsters with the same Rank and overlay units, I can overlay them to summon a new monster!"

"An Xyz Monster that uses Numbers as material?" Hikari asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That's right!" Yuma confirmed. "Using the Rank four Utopia and Diamond Crab King, I build the overlay network and Xyz Summon the Emperor of Numbers! Come forth! Number 93: Utopia Kaiser!"

A large vortex in the form of a golden galaxy appeared in the center of the field and pulled in the two Xyz Monsters as balls of yellow energy, the balls of light still orbiting around them following close behind. Rising out of the vortex's center only moments later was a massive ornate black and silver sword with four balls of golden light orbiting around it. The sword unfolded and changed shape, taking on a form similar to Utopia's. His body was covered in black and silver armor, along with a long black coat and a black and blue breechcloth that hung down from the front of his waist. On his back was a white cape, along with four ornate gold blades that were almost as large as his body raised like two pairs of wings. Covering the warrior's shoulders were two round pieces of shield-like silver armor with gold trim. On the piece of armor covering his left shoulder was the number 93 in red alien writing.

"I didn't know there was another Number that was also a Utopia monster." Kotori spoke up in the skybox.

"It may be a Rank twelve, but it still has the same ATK as the original Utopia." Kaito pointed out.

"Yeah. But it must have a killer effect if it took two Numbers to summon it." Gilag pointed out.

"Maybe it does, but it doesn't really matter since Hikari can just use Stardust Sfir to negate that effect." Shark reminded them. "I don't see how Yuma and Astral expect to win this."

"I activate the Spell card, Dazzling Number!" Yuma announced.

Utopia Kaiser's body suddenly gave off a dazzling flash of gold light. Stardust Sfir growled and shook his head as if blinded by the flash.

"Until the end of this turn, Dazzling Number prevents you from activating any monster effects in response to the effect of a Number." Yuma continued. "Which means I can now activate Utopia Kaiser's effect without worrying about it being negated by Stardust Sfir! With Utopia Kaiser's power, I summon four Number monsters with different Ranks from my Extra Deck up to the number of overlay units still attached to him! I call forth Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, Number 50: Blackship of Corn, Number 22: Zombiestein, and Number 6: Chronomaly Atlandis!"

Utopia Kaiser's body gave off a golden aura that shot a beam of gold light into the air. Four balls of light came down from the sky and struck the stage, becoming four of the sealed objects that the Numbers appeared as when first summoned. The first was the scaly blue relic that changed into Leviathan Dragon. The second was an object that appeared to be wooded carving of a corncob that was stained black. The wooded cob grew and changed shape, becoming an old pirate ship with a black underside that retained the original object's corncob characteristics. Decorating the front of the ships yellowed sail was the number 50 written in red alien writing. The third object was a large heart that looked like it was stitched together from brown pieces of tissue.

The heart began to beat and thick black tendrils almost like thread burst out of it, wrapping around the heart and taking on a humanoid shape. The thread flashed red and became a large muscular giant with brown flesh that looked like it had been stitched together. It had on long black pants with a decorative tan and green cloth hanging down around his waist. Around the giant's head was a hood made from tattered black cloth that completely hid his face except for a single glowing yellow eye. Written on the cloth of the hood in red alien writing was the number 22.

The final object that had been summoned by Utopia Kaiser was a floating brown stone that looked like the top of some kind of tower. The bottom of the stone expanded and changed shape, and standing behind Yuma and his other four monsters in a matter of seconds was a giant golem that looked like it had been made of a mountain. Its arms and legs glowed orange with lava, and its face was a round opening glowing with the same magma. The giant's stomach had an opening in it that looked as if it was made to house some sort of building. Around its chest was a smooth grey stone ring with the number 06 on the front in magenta alien writing. As soon as the four Numbers had finished forming, one of the balls of light orbiting Utopia Kaiser vanished. The audience was again left in awe by the appearance of the four new monsters.

"Each of the monsters summoned by Utopia Kaiser's effect have their effects negated." Yuma continued. "Not only that, Utopia Kaiser loses one of his overlay units, and any battle damage my monsters cause for the rest of this turn is cut in half."

"Pretty impressive, but what was the point?" Hikari asked. "None of your monsters have enough ATK to take down Stardust Sfir."

"From my hand, I equip Utopia Kaiser with the monster, ZW – Griffin Mantel!" Yuma announced.

Appearing in the air above Utopia Kaiser was a mechanical griffin made of black and gold armor. Its blade-like wings were made of a silvery metal. The griffin turned into gold light and struck Utopia Kaiser. When the light faded, the Number Emperor's chest had become covered by a piece of gold and black armor that looked like the griffin's eagle-like face. His cape had become covered in gold feathers, and the griffin's original silver wings had become attached to his gold blades.

"I activate Griffin Mantel's effect!" Yuma announced. "By detaching Utopia Kaiser's remaining overlay units, he gains the combined ATK of all other Number monsters on the field for the rest of the turn! Which means his ATK will become 15900!"

The three balls of gold light orbiting around Utopia Kaiser entered the eyes of the griffin face covering his chest. All five of the Number monsters then began to give off a golden aura.

"This duel ends now!" Yuma declared. "Utopia, attack Stardust Sfir! Imperial Number Strike!"

Utopia Kaiser fired a massive beam of gold light at Hikari's dragon. Stardust Sfir was completely vaporized by the blast and Hikari's life points dropped to zero. With the duel over, the five Number monsters vanished and Yuma and Astral split back apart into their original forms.

"And the winner of the duel is… Yuma Tsukumo!" the referee declared, causing the audience to cheer.

Down in the dugout, Alit noticed a scowl on Cleo's face. "You don't look too thrilled about Yuma winning."

"This tournament was supposed to end with me dueling Hikari." Cleo told him. "Oh well. I'll just have to crush Tsukumo in the finals as revenge."

Meanwhile in the rival dugout, a grin had formed on Alnia's face. "This outcome works just perfectly for us. Now we can take the Numeron Code from Tsukumo and the Envoy without any more fuss."

"They certainly had to go all out to beat that Signer girl though." Samantha remarked. "If they hadn't used that ZEXAL power of theirs, they probably would've lost."

"That doesn't really matter." Alnia told her. "In the end, this tournament is a war for Number users. Those Signer bitches should just stay out of it."

Back up on the stage, Hikari walked up to Yuma and Astral. "That was a fun duel. You guys probably could've given my dad a hard time."

"Thanks." Yuma replied. "This was one of the best duels I've had in the whole tournament."

"The next duel will be between Samantha Warren and Alit!" the referee announced. "The duel will begin in five minutes!"

"Well, looks like the fun might be over." Hikari darkly remarked.

"Do not be too sure about that, Hikari." Astral told her. "Alit is a powerful duelist, and he's armed with a Shining Number. He may just be able to defeat Mitaka."

"Well Mitaka, looks like you're up." Alnia told Samantha. "You better not screw up the way Anitak did."

"Don't worry Alnia. I've got this." Samantha assured her. "I'm going to make that little son of a bitch pay for taking away Ani from us."

Author's Note: I hope nobody minds that I had Hikari use Stardust Sfir Spark Dragon in this duel. The actual card doesn't specify having to Stardust Spark Dragon as material, and I didn't want to try making up another evolved form.

Please review and let me know what you think.