(63-64 – End of Duel) Battle!

[Draw Phase]

"DRAW!" yells Anna after scampering up from the ground.

The CSG cheer group goes in with a call and some dancing. "CSG! CSG! WE ARE ALLLLLL CSG!"

Both our platforms return to the place above the arena after the attack's done. ‘Good thing, too. For goodness’ sake! I could hear the camera flashes…’

[Standby Phase]

Anna pauses the turn progression and declares. "Before anything else, I will activate the effect of Cymbal Skeleton from the Grave by banishing it. With this, I target Galatea from my GY and special summon her."

Banishes itself to SS  from grave

The pale automaton joins the fight once more. It glances at Dingirsu, then turns to the other... It furrows its brow, confused by the identical monsters.

"Still in standby, I use Galatea’s effect, returning Cymbal skeleton, and setting a copy of ‘Orcust Crescendo.' With this, I progress to Main Phase 1 to activate ‘Foolish Burial’ and send ‘Destrudo the Lost Dragon's Frisson’ from the deck to the grave."

returns from banish pile, setting

Next [Main Phase 1]

sends  from deck to grave

‘Oof, that card is nasty. It requires half of your LP to come to the field. Last time she used it, she was on the ground for a good five minutes, and she can’t really do that here.’

Apparently, Anna thought the same thing. "Now, with Galatea, I build the overlay network! Come out to play, ‘Dingirsu, The Orcust of the Evening Star!’"

XYZ Summon: Overlay

XYZ Summon

A hole opens in space, and another giant appears, joining the other two.

‘Wait, how come it skipped the summoning animation? Don’t tell me you can disable that?! What have I been getting blinded for!?’

The audience gawks at the sight, three giants now stand, two facing one another, joined by a similarly impressed beast of flesh in the form of Outer Entity Azathot.

"ANOTHER TITAN JOINS THE FRAY! But will the number last? Don’t forget Dingirsu’s effect." The CSG announcer teases.

"That’s very true." Agrees Anna. "With Dingirsu’s on-summon effect, I send your despicable copy of my monster back to the grave. Sorry, Aya, it’s just business."

Anna's sends Aya's from field to grave

The newly summoned Dingirsu points his spear at Aya’s, which simply looks into the distance as a beam pierces a hole in its chest, resulting in the monster falling calmly over and disintegrating into blue particles.

"I will put Ash Blossom in defense position and go to battle."

["Battle Phase!"]  blears over the speakers, while our platforms return to their protected place atop the spectator stands.

Anna puts her arm forward and declares. "Dingirsu, attack Knightmare, and how about you finish the bigfoot?" She must’ve been referring to the other titan, as that was the only other monster in attack position.

Attacks defense position

Other attacks defense position

That theory of mine proves correct as the two titans move in unison on their charge. The First Dingirsu pierces the noticeably smaller Orcust Knightmare with its long spear, resulting in the automaton breaking apart into a flurry of metal scrap that disappears before getting to Aya. Danger Bigfoot suffers a much deadlier fate, as the second Dingirsu simply smashes it with its shield.

‘I wonder what would’ve happened if Bigfoot was in attack position. It has more attack points at 3000. Shame Aya put it in defense.’

"I think this is enough, Main Phase 2."

[

End of Battle

CSG LP: 5400

NWDA LP: 8000

]

"GO ANNA!   GO ANNA!   GO, GO, GO ANNA!"   cheers their group, waving their pompons around without a care in the world.

[Main Phase 2]

"Thanks girls!" Anna calls out while waving to her cheer squad. When she’s done, she turns back to Aya to tell "Well, I’m sure your squad also wants you to win, so I’ll pass the turn soon enough. But before that, let me leave with this." The green-haired girl raises her arm. "I set my two Dingirsu’s as link arrows, LINK SUMMON!"

Link Summon: Link set

and

‘What? This is bonkers. I would understand the move if both monsters had no overlay units, but one still had a Galatea in there. Does Anna think Aya can’t threaten her this turn?’

The two enormous beasts disappear into orbs of energy, which fly into the link circuit forming above.

"What?" Aya mirrors my confusion.

"You’ll see, little one. Emerge, ‘Galatea, The Orcust Automaton!’" Anna finishes, and a small human figure wielding a scythe appears on the arena. "I end my turn here."

Link Summon

[End Phase, Draw Phase]

Aya stays unmoving for a few seconds, and I decide to get her attention. "The CSG has left an opening. Don’t think the NWDA won’t notice this. MAKE HER PAY AYA! DRAW YOUR CARD!"

This snaps Aya out, and she whispers.  "Huh, yeah, draw."

"Just a second there." Anna interrupts. "I will use the effect of Galatea to return Orcust Cymbal Skeleton to the deck. You can go now."

returns from banish to deck

[Standby Phase, Main Phase 1]

Aya lets out a sigh of relief. "Won’t matter in the long run. I activate Yellow Marten’s effect in the grave, targeting Lunalight Tiger in the pendulum zone to..."

targets  in pend zone

"I don’t think so, Aya, trap reveal." Anna interrupts. "I negate the effect of Yellow Marten with Orcust Crescendo. This will also banish the card that was negated."

Trap reveal negates and banishes

"Tch! fine, I’ll instead banish Orcust Knightmare in the graveyard to activate its effect, targeting Azathot and sending Orcust Harp Horror from the deck to the grave. This will add 400 ATK points to Azathot."

banishes itself to target  sending  from deck to grave, adding 400 ATK to

‘And not much more…’  I complete her sentence in my mind. ‘Every Orcust card she had is either banished or in the grave." Also, with Skeleton banished and her only Galatea in the grave, she appears to be a little stuck with the Orcust engine.’

Probably drawing the same conclusion, Aya moves to the Lunalight part of her Lunalight Orcust deck. "I normal summon Lunalight Kaleido Chick to the field and use her effect to send Lunalight Emerald Bird to the grave." She pauses, looking over her hand and graveyard for a bit. "I set Elder Entity Azathot to attack position, battle!"

Normal Summon

sending  from deck to grave.

The platforms move away once again, and both of the monsters on Aya’s field get ready to attack.

She gives the order. "Azathot, attack Orcust Knightmare! And Kaleido Chick! Get Galatea!"

attacks attack position

tries to attack

Azathot is the first to act, grabbing onto the automaton with one of its fleshy hands resting at its sides. It throws the machine directly at Anna.

The machine glows red and self-destructs into a brilliant explosion meters away from its master, but the pieces keep going. Reaching Anna, still glowing hot.

"ARHHH!! FUCK! SHIT!" She wails in pain while her skin sizzles with hot shrapnel embedding itself in it. She screams as the last pieces reach her, and falls to the ground, panting.

While still rolling in pain, Anna mutters something. "AH-Ah! TTFH! W-with the effect of Knightmare... I-I target Galatea-a, sending Harp Horror to the grave. ARRH! N-Next! I banish Harp Horror to special summon Cymbal Skeleton!"

Anna's banishes itself to target sending from deck to grave, adding 400ATK to

Next

Anna's banishes itself from grave to special summon from deck.

In the place of Orcust Knightmare, another beast takes its place in the form of a massive skeleton on tracks.

Seeing this, Aya changes her plan. "If that’s the case, I change my attack from Galatea to Cymbal Skeleton."

changes attack target to

Mid-flight, the small avian figure changes course toward the mechanical skeleton and headbutts it. Contrary to what would be expected with the sizes of both monsters, the skeleton simply collapses, which results in various metal pieces scraping against Anna and some smaller pieces scratching her.

Anna barely reacts, and a wide smile grows on her face as she limps up and declares. "Ahaha! I knew you were going to take the bait! By banishing the cymbal skeleton you so graciously put in the grave for me, I activate its effect! Reviving an Orcust monster from the grave Guess what? Return from your early retirement! Appear! Dingirsu!"

Anna's banishes itself to SS from grave

"S-Shit!" Aya stutters, staring at the titan emerging on Anna’s side of the arena.

"I’m not done! Using the on-summon effect of Dingirsu, I send Azathot to the grave! Take that!"

Anna's sends Aya's to grave

The newly summoned Dingirsu does its signature move of shooting a large beam of energy out of its spear, which cuts straight through the fleshy island, completely severing it in half and making it disintegrate.

"Tch! I end my turn!"

[

End of Battle

CSG LP: 2400

NWDA LP: 8000

]

"THE CSG CHALLENGER IS LOOKING WORSE FOR WEAR! Will she be able to contain Aya’s wrath and the NWDA, or will she fall like the others!?" I end the announcement with an acrobatic routine.

[End Phase]

The CSG cheer team follows with an announcement of their own. "While Anna is wounded, don’t forget she still holds the giant at her command! GO CSG! GO ANNA!"

[Draw Phase]

Anna yells after rubbing away some blood flowing from the corner of her lips. "That’s right! DRAW!"

[Main Phase 1]

The tall, green-haired girl looks around the field for a bit and declares. "This has been fucking fun! But it’s not fair that I’m the only one spitting blood over here, battle!"

[Battle Phase]

‘Well, I hope she can handle this. That’s a lot of damage on board and one 1500 ATK monster to defend against it. I think as the platforms recede.

Anna raises her arm in an open gesture and orders. “Dingirsu! Destroy that little chick! Galatea! Follow that up with a DIRECT ATTACK!”

Anna's attacks Aya's

Anna's Direct Attack.

Aya braces herself as the giant charges at the small monster on her field.

Dingirsu’s spear skewers the small, human-shaped monster in a violent manner, but no blood shoots out, and it quickly turns into specks of light. But the shockwave of Dingirsu’s movement continues on, smacking into Aya and sending her flying 2 meters back.

"CGCHG!" Aya lets go of a muffled grunt and lands back first into the metallic arena, the air exiting her lungs.

Unfortunately for her, a small automaton graciously descends close to her and gazes into her eyes.

Aya looks back and taunts. "Come on! Do your thing!"

It answers by swinging its massive scythe close to her arm, opening a paper-thin cut all the way up it.

She breathes through her teeth before screaming as drops of blood drip down her arm. "TFFF! F-FUCK! YOU!!!"

Scoffing, Anna responds. "Yeah, that’s a lot more like it. With this, I will proceed to the End Phase, where I’ll activate Orcust Crescendo to add ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’ back to my hand. Try not to panic, Aya, but I don’t see how you can come back from this."

Anna's banishes itself from grave to add from banish pile

[

End of Battle:

CSG LP: 2400

NWDA LP: 5100

]

[End Phase]

‘That’s not really true. Honestly, I think Aya is in a pretty good position to win this match. That is, if she gets up.’

Seeing that Aya was having trouble, I go in with some encouraging words. "COME ON, AYA! The CSG may have some big monsters, but you have them AND more life points! You can win this! N! W! D! A!"

She glances up, still holding onto her arm, and takes a step. "I know…" Her face turns stern, and she tightens the grip on her bleeding arm. "Shit! DRAW!"

Anna also interrupts. "Just a second, on your draw, I will chain the effect of Galatea, returning Orcust Crescendo back to the deck; unfortunately, that will be all. Proceed."

Anna's returns but can't set anything using effect.

Hearing this, Aya tenses up and tells. "Sure! I activate Yellow Marten from the grave, returning Lunalight Tiger back to my hand to special summon it!" The pillar of light next to her disappears as the Fox/Panda creature materializes on the field.

Aya's  returns  from pend zone to hand, SS's itself.

Aya continues. "I will once again activate Tiger to my pendulum zone. Then I will trigger its pendulum effect, bringing Lunalight Emerald Bird from the grave." The small humanoid tiger with a half-moon mask returns to the pendulum zone, followed quickly by an emerald-green avian monster.

Aya activates   to pend zone, and activate   pend effect, SS'ing  from grave to field.

Raising her injured arm, Aya declares "With Yellow Marten and Emerald bird, I LINK SUMMON! Come on out! Knightmare Phoenix!"

Link Summon: Link Set

and

Link Summon

The two monsters rise into the link circuit, resulting in a large phoenix bird made of deep red flames flying around the arena.

"Using Phoenix’s effect, I discard Lunalight Kaleido Chick to destroy Orcustrated Babel!"

Aya's discards to send Anna's to grave

Knightmare Phoenix flaps its large wings, shooting a barrage of thin flaming wings at the enormous tower, casting a shadow on the arena. It collapses soon after, but the sound of the massive tower crumbling doesn’t follow it.

"With Orcustrated Babel gone, the CSG’s Orcust monsters in the grave won’t count as quick effects, diminishing the disruption effect they will have. GO AYA! GO NWDA!"

Aya shouts.  "Using Knightmare Phoenix as link material, I link summon 'Knightmare Mermaid!'"

Link Summon: Link Set

Link Summon

After being done with its task, the phoenix flies up into yet another link circuit. Exiting from the circuit is a strange, deep blue mermaid monster with crystalline features.

But for me, this move lacks thought. ‘Why would you use that many resources just to pop Babel? I know I hyped it up, but there’s not much Anna could even use… Oh well, let’s just watch... Can’t really do anything else.’

"Following my mermaid, I banish ‘World Legacy - World Wand"’ from the grave to activate its effect, special summoning ‘Orcust Knightmare’ straight from the banish pile. Next, I activate the spell card ‘Luna Light Perfume'. This fragrance will special summon Lunalight Kaleido Chick from the grave. And finally, with ‘Knightmare Mermaid,’ ‘Orcust Knightmare," and ‘Lunalight Kaleido Chick,’ I link summon!"

banishes itself to SS from banish pile

Next

SS's from grave

Link Summon: Link Set

, and

None of the monsters Aya special summoned get the chance to fully materialize before entering a gigantic link circuit. Unlike every other time in this duel, a pillar of light skewers it, resulting in a bright flash that catches me off guard.

"Nng! Shit!" I stutter, covering my eyes from the light while looking away. Thankfully, the announcements are push-to-talk by default, or that would’ve been embarrassing.

Aya, seemingly impervious to the blinding light, declares "APPEAR! ‘Longirsu, The Orcust Orchestrator!’" The light fades to reveal a male human-like figure with long, flowing purple hair, standing between Aya and her opponent, holding a shield and spear.

Link Summon

He instantly fixes his eyes on Galatea but turns away after noticing the indifferent look on the automaton’s face and the duelist standing behind it.

"Longirsu’s effect activates! By returning ‘Orcust Knightmare’ and ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’ from the banish pile back to my deck, I send your defense position Ash Blossom to the graveyard. You should’ve really held on to that card. It’s a waste using it like this."

Aya's returns and from banish to deck, sending Anna's  to grave

Longirsu points its spear at the fairy creature, causing it to vanish for no apparent reason.

"Following this, I use the effect of Orcust Knightmare in Grave, banishing itself to target Longirsu, sending ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’ back to the grave to raise Longirsu’s ATK points by 300. More importantly, I banish the Cymbal Skeleton that Knightmare just sent to the grave. This will activate its effect, special summon! Return from your rest! Appear! Dingirsu!"

banishes itself to target sending from deck to grave, adding 300 ATK to

Next

banishes itself to SS from grave

The space around me literally vibrates, with a deep sinking feeling following that.

On the field, Dingirsu returns with full force, summoning animation and everything.

"Here it comes again, ladies and gentlemen! The titan that never seems to rest! Destroyer of carefully constructed boards! ‘Dingirsu! Orcust of the Evening Star!’" We do a dance routine with a dubstep beat while the giant fully descends upon the arena.

When the giant fully descends, Aya goes in. "Using Dingirsu’s on-summon effect, I send your copy back to the graveyard!"

Aya's sends Anna's to grave

Dingirsu holds its spear up to its copy and shots an energy beam like the last three times, turning its impostor into rubble.

Aya follows that up by shouting. "Battle! Dingirsu! Attack Galatea!"

Aya's attacks Anna's

[Battle Phase]

The titan charges with its spear, hitting the small pale automaton and causing it to disintegrate into small metal pieces, which continue on and reach Anna.

She grunts, twitching as the shrapnel cuts through her, then shouts. "AHGR! FUCK! That never stops hurting!"

"Yeah… It doesn’t. Main Phase 2" Aya agrees and progresses to the next phase.

[

End of Battle

CSG LP: 1600

NWDA LP: 5100

]

[Main Phase 2]

"I banish Orcust Harp Horror from the grave. Special summoning ‘Orcust Knightmare’ from the deck in defense position. With this, I end my turn. What did you say about me not winning, Anna? Because you look ready to surrender yourself."

banishes itself to SS from deck in defense position

"That’s it for Aya’s turn. Will the CSG be able to recover again? Or will the NWDA take this duel for itself? Don’t turn away for even a second!"

[End Phase]

"Of course we won’t surrender! Show the NWDA what the CSG can do! Come on, Anna! CSG! CSG! CSG!"

Anna simply snickers and follows. "They’re a bunch of lively girls, aren’t they?" She’s one to talk, considering the condition she’s in. Bloody skin with cuts all over isn’t an uncommon result of a long, drawn-out duel, but normally duelists in that state can barely talk, much less gossip about their cheer squad...

Aya responds with a smile. "Yup, that’s one way to put it..."

[Draw Phase]

"Very well, then. Let me show you what MY deck can do. Draw!" She enthusiastically grabs the card that her duel disk spits out.

She looks at it in her hand before grabbing one card. "I normal summon ‘The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots!' Followed by the effect of Destrudo in the grave! ARHHH!!"

Normal Summon

Next

activates effect

Destrudo takes half of her remaining 1600 LP, shown by red lighting assaulting her body followed by a painful scream.

"Sorry Anna." Aya interrupts. "I activate my trap card, ‘Orcust Crescendo’ I’m pretty sure you know what it does, but this will negate Destructo and banish it."

Aya activates  negating and banishing

Anna keeps drawing deep breaths and says through her teeth. "FFUCK!" and continues breathing deeply before declaring. "If that's the case, then I set Silent Boots for a link arrow! Link summon. Appear, Salamangreat Almiraj!"

Link Summon: Link Set

Link Summon

The imp-like monster gets replaced by a small mechanical bunny with a massive horn.

"This will trigger Silent Boots’ effect, adding ‘Phatom Knight’s Fog Blade’ to my hand. I will set a card face down and then..." Anna pauses. I’m guessing that getting Destructo negated messed up her plan for this turn.

banishes itself to add  from deck to hand

After a brief minute, Anna continues with a sigh. "Ahhh, I didn’t want it to come to this, but I send Cymbal Skeleton to the banish pile, using its effect to special summon…"

"Dingirsu right?" Aya finishes her sentence. It's kind of obvious what her move here was.

Anna confirms it with a simple "Yup. Appear once again, ‘Dingirsu! The Orcust of the Evening Star!’"

Anna's  banishes itself to SS

‘You know, this is getting kind of boring…’ I think while looking at the overly glamorous summoning animation.

The CSG cheer team probably thinks the same thing, they don’t even bother calling out to the summon.

When the giant finishes materializing, Anna says. "And guess what? Dingirsu will use its on summon effect to send your Dingirsu to the grave."

Anna's sends Aya's from field to grave

With yet another beam of energy, the giant destroys its counterpart, but only visually; Dirgirsu’s effect doesn’t destroy, only send.

"Next, battle! Dingirsu, destroy Longirsu!"

Anna's attacks Aya's

The titan charges at the warrior, and a battle of epic proportion ensues.

Longirsu dodges the spear, jumping from his position to the giant's spear. He rushes up the spear, charging at full speed with his own weapon at the ready.

But Dingirsu’s spear is almost as tall as a skyscraper. The giant automaton simply swats the intruder away, sending Longirsu flying at ridiculous speeds back inside the arena.

The warrior crashes onto the floor and disintegrates on the spot. The force of the impact cracks the arena, sending tiny pieces of marble at Aya.

She braces herself, but only one or two hit her. After all, this is only 100 LP of damage.

"Unfortunately, this is all I can do for now. I end my turn."

[

CSG LP: 800

NWDA LP: 5000

]

[End Phase]

"This is it! The critical moment! With only 800 LP, the CSG will find it difficult to get out of this hole, as any attack from a typical monster will end them, and as a bonus, there’s a 0 ATK monster on the field. It’s now or never! GO AYA! END THIS!"

[Draw Phase]

Aya nods and calmly draws her card. "Draw." Her expression stiffens immediately after she looks at it.

[Standby Phase]

She looks at her opponent and tells. "Well, you heard her. I activate the card ‘Orcust Crescendo’ from the grave; by banishing this card, I add ‘Orcust Harp Horror’ from the banish pile to my hand. Next, I activate ‘Luna Light Perfume’ by discarding a card from my hand—in this case, Harp Horror—and it will let me add ‘Lunalight Kaleido Chick’ from the deck to my hand. Finally, I normal summon Kaleido Chick, using its effect to send a copy of ‘Lunalight Tiger’ from the deck to the grave."

Aya's  banishes itself from grave to add  from deck

Next

activate from grave, discarding , adding  from deck

Next

sends  from deck to grave

"Trap reveal!" Anna interrupts, "I use Phantom Knight’s Fog Blade targeting Kaleido Chick!"

Anna's targets Aya's

Aya furrows her brow and explains. "I’m sorry, Anna, but Kaleido Chick sends for cost. Lunalight Tiger will still go to the grave."

"That's right, but it still can't attack!" Anna explains.

Aya turns to her graveyard and frowns. "Shit… Ok, I'll end my turn here. Good luck Anna."

[End Phase]

‘What? Why all the setup, then? Yeah, let me get egg on my face, don't you? Fuck, I hope Anna doesn't come back from this... What am I saying? She has done exactly that every single turn since the duel started. Orcust is very resilient. Unless you negate the graveyard, then they’re done.’

Regrets over not giving Aya a hard counter deck had to wait, though, as Anna psyched herself up for her turn.

[Draw Phase]

“Draw!”

"Come on, Anna! You might have a big job ahead of you, but don’t forget how you got here! YOU CAN DO THIS!" The CSG cheer squad tries to hype Anna up; the audience already an afterthought. With duels like these, why do you even need cheerleaders? Everyone’s already too busy keeping up with the duelists.

“Thanks girls!” Anna waves at them before grabbing a card from her hand. “I normal summon Armageddon Knight! With its on-summon effect, I send ‘Orcust Harp Horror’ from the deck to the grave! Next, I activate Harp Horror’s effect! Banishing it to special summon ‘Orcust Knightmare’ from the deck in defense position, battle!”

Anna Normal Summons

, effect activates, sending from deck to grave

Next

banishes itself to SS from deck in defense position.

[Battle Phase]

"Dingirsu! Attack, Orcust Knightmare!" Anna gives the order, and her monster obeys, piercing the large automaton with its spear with its signature charge.

Anna's attacks Aya's defense position

With the attack over and no other reasonable targets on the field, Anna moves the turn progression.

[Main Phase 2]

"By setting Orcust Knightmare and Armageddon Knight for link arrows, I link summon! Appear, Link-2, Galatea!" The two monsters rise into a link circuit, and a copy of the pale automaton exits.

Link Summon: Link Set

and

Link Summon

"I'll banish Orcust Knightmare to use its effect, targeting Dingirsu and sending World Wand to the grave, but I'll chain Galatea's effect to that, returning Orcust Knightmare to the deck."

Anna's banishes itself to target sending  from deck to grave, adding 800ATK to

Next

returns from banish pile to deck

The already massive automaton grows a few meters, representing the 800 ATK increase from Orcust Knightmare.

"Then, by banishing World Wand, I special summon Orcust Cymbal Skeleton back from the grave!"

banishes itself to SS from GY

Orcust Cymbal Skeleton appears once again on Anna’s field, makes you wonder why she didn’t do this before attacking. It wouldn’t have been game, but extra damage never hurts.

Anna looks over her hand and at her deck. "That’s it for me. Show me what you got, Aya."

[End Phase]

The CSG cheer team excludes any backtalk; this duel has been going on for over nine turns now, and I’m guessing they’re just as tired as we are.

But I can’t help but say something to Aya. "Come on! You’ve gotten out of worse situations! Go Aya!"

She responds with a nod and grabs her turn card.

[Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase 1]

Aya stops to look at her cards, examining what options she has left after so many turns.

She remains looking at her cards for a while.

"You think she has anything left, Yuumi?" I hear Haruna ask on my headset.

I think about it and respond. "It’s not that difficult to deal 800 points of damage, but the problem is what monster Anna has. For example, if she could somehow revive Dingirsu or Longirsu, then that’s easy for running over Cymbal Skeleton."

"Wait. Why wouldn’t she just attack Almiraj? That thing has zero attack points." Naeko asks the pertinent question.

"Read its effect. That thing can get out of there right when she attacks." I explain.

Aya suddenly looks to her opponent, expectingly.

‘Did she figure it out?’

Ironically, she nods, probably to herself, before declaring. "Here we go! I normal summon Armageddon Knight! Then, I use its effect to send ‘Blackwing - Zephyros, The Elite’ from deck to grave. Using Zephyros’ graveyard effect, I return Lunalight Tiger to my hand to special summon it from the grave."

sending  from deck to grave

Next

returns  from pend zone to hand

The black knight was promptly joined on her field by a winged beast with dark wings and blue head fur.

An intense wind picks up, something impossible in the vacuum of space, but somehow it has the force to rustle Aya around. "NGGG! This also deals 400 LP of damage, a small price to pay for what I’m about to do next." She holds the card her duel disk just spat out and declares. "I once again activate ‘Lunalight Tiger’ to my pendulum zone! Activating its pendulum effect to special summon a Lunalight from the grave. Appear ‘Lunalight Emerald Bird!

activates to pend zone, activates pend effect to SS  from GY

An avian figure resurges next to the three other monsters. Its emerald-like feathers shine in the sunlight.

‘Oh… She’s going for that, ok.’ With that thought, I turn to my three squad mates. "Girls, get ready for some dragon riding. This ends now."

Haruna rolls her eyes. "You’ve said that three times now, and we’re still here."

"Come on, Haruna, I mean it." I reassure.

Naeko takes two steps and closes on Haruna. "I think Yuumi might be right here." She also reassures before turning to me and asking. "But did you really put that card on Aya’s deck? That seems dangerous."

I shrug. "If she turns bad, then there’s always me. Come on now, the show’s about to start."

And that it was, as Aya raised her arm. "I set ‘Blackwing - Zephyros The Elite,’ ‘Armageddon Knight,’ ‘Lunalight Kaleido Chick’ and ‘Lunalight Emerald Bird’ for link arrows! LINK SUMMON!"

Link Summon: Link Set

, , and

Every monster on Aya’s board turns into distinctively colored orbs of light that rise into a massive link circuit.

We also summon some monsters; I go for DMG while Haruna grabs onto Candina. The two of us ride our summons close to the link circuit as well, getting ready to grab onto the beast about to exit through it.

"EMERGE!" Aya calls out. "DESTROY MY ENEMIES, ‘BORRELSWORD DRAGON!’"

The circuit explodes, literally.

"Come on! Keep going!" I tell my green-eyed summoned monster with golden blonde hair fluttering with the nonsensical wind.

She glances at me and nods, then pushes harder into the shockwave.

We somehow break closer to it. Only to see a massive mechanical dragon come out of the summoning circuit racing through the skies.

"GO!" I yell to my summon.

She speeds up, matching the racing dragon's speed for only a moment.

I jump off at that point, and see Haruna also falling right next to me.

Borrelsword dragon stops diving and levels out, allowing both of us to fall onto its back.

Concurrently, I hear Aya declare. "Battle! Borrelsword! Attack Dingirsu and use your effect!

[Battle Phase]

On top of the beast, I notice the fire that makes up its wings grow more intense as its attack points rise. Borrelsword’s effect cuts the attack points of the monster it's attack in half and adds them to its own 3000 attack. Here, it halves Dingirsu’s attack points to 1300 and turns itself into a 4300 attack beast.

Aya's attacks Anna's

activates effect, raising attack by 1300 and reducing attack of by 1300

From up here, I don’t notice what Anna’s doing, but the attack keeps going.

The dragon rushes into the gigantic monster that is Dingirsu and charges an energy ball in its mouth. After arriving right next to the titan’s head, it shoots the energy as a beam of light-blue light, evaporating anything in its path.

This only lasts a few seconds as the lights around the arena dim and the dragon promptly lands next to Aya. Who’s standing there with a dumb smile on her face.

Before climbing down from the beast, I glance at Anna. She’s on her knees with a red barrier surrounding her, and her monsters are nowhere to be seen.

‘Did Aya… DID AYA JUST???...'