Once they realized the situation, Syrus and Atticus Rhodes immediately huddled together and began working out a plan.
As members of the "Fusion Dimension," whose movements were relatively restricted, although they'd successfully completed the first round of diplomacy with the Xyz Dimension, the Fusion Dimension's members were still limited. And they, the visiting students, were naturally even more limited, with no way to go directly to find the "City Hall team's" members.
But that didn't mean they had no options.
One of those options was to join the Fusion Dimension's team and duel.
Because the City Hall team had earlier fielded a contestant who used Xyz, the rules had been temporarily adjusted once, so that each team no longer needed to worry about participants from other dimensions. And of course, alongside that, other supplementary rules had been added too.
One of them was this: teams with fewer than three reserve members could subsequently add reserve members on a temporary basis, up to a maximum of three.
This was also compensation for the many teams that hadn't prepared in advance and had only three main members.
This kind of thing, which at first glance was so-called "compensation," was in fact a strategy that made it easy for teams to make other "malicious" changes on the fly. At first quite a few people calmly opposed it, but once someone raised the point that reserve members could also obtain a "D-Wheel," all the voices of opposition vanished beneath the wave of support.
And it was precisely because of this that Syrus and Atticus Rhodes could find an opportunity to team up with their seniors and take part in this WRGP tournament.
But...
"This isn't exactly by the rules." Listening to the two students' request, Mokuba Kaiba couldn't help rubbing his forehead.
You say that's your brother, that's your best friend, but does saying so make it so? That's a member of the Synchro Dimension's City Hall team. From any angle it doesn't look like him, does it?
Besides, even if they really were adding more temporary participating duelists, obviously it should be Jaden Yuki or Aster, right?
"Mr. Mokuba! I promise I won't hold you back!" Syrus pleaded every which way.
"Big bro Mokuba, I trust Truesdale's judgment. Since he feels that person is Zane, then maybe it really is." Chazz chimed in alongside him.
A few days ago he wouldn't have believed Syrus's line of argument, but having just seen Jaden Yuki say that "Light" was Hikaru, and with Light's dueling indeed carrying a distinctly Hikaru-like style, he now had a different understanding of everything.
Maybe that Polaris really was Zane?
So he wanted to see whether Mokuba Kaiba could put in a bit of effort. Although it was somewhat disrespectful, he felt that compared to finding someone, giving up a reserve slot was no problem at all.
Beside them, Jaden also very much wanted to cheer Syrus on. It was just a pity he wasn't familiar with the people here, so he could really only manage a half-hearted cheer.
Seeing that his two favored "reserve candidates" also supported Syrus and Atticus Rhodes, Mokuba Kaiba showed a slightly yielding expression.
Only, after hesitating a moment, he still felt it was inappropriate.
Atticus Rhodes's strength was beyond doubt. Although he hadn't achieved outstanding results in the GX tournament, the sight of him pressing Zane Truesdale the whole way back then was still fresh in Mokuba Kaiba's memory even now.
But... what about Syrus?
He hadn't even participated in the GX tournament's finals.
Mokuba Kaiba naturally knew that at the time, Syrus had been off saving people together with Jaden, and afterward, because the Light of Destruction had cast suspicion on Jaden Yuki, he'd been accompanying Jaden the whole time. Otherwise he could have participated in the grand finals.
But in the end there was no genuine tournament performance to prove his strength...
"If it really won't work, would it be a big deal to let Aster go up and fight?" Mokuba said to Chazz.
If they really wanted a chance to call out on the arena, Aster would work too, right?
Chazz hesitated a moment and looked at Syrus. Syrus suddenly began wavering.
Settling for the next best thing wasn't out of the question...
"Let's duel."
?
Just as everyone was trying to find a peaceful solution, a voice suddenly rang out.
Everyone instinctively looked toward the source of the voice.
They saw two Gravekeeper duelists staring blankly at the students, then hurriedly looking at each other.
That's not right. That voice.
And at this moment, a young man in a hood, both hands in his pockets, strode out from behind the two of them.
Rex Raptor!
The legendary duelist!
And one of this tournament's "main force" contestants!
At this very moment, he'd not only changed into a crimson-red coat, but the clothes were also painted with all sorts of sharp teeth.
"Mr. Raptor?" Mokuba Kaiba was a bit surprised.
"Senior Raptor!" The students showed pleasantly surprised expressions.
Rex Raptor walked up in front of Syrus. Syrus immediately swallowed, sweat faintly beading on his forehead too.
"I said, let's duel. As a student of Duel Academy, if you want to compete, then duel!" Rex Raptor said, looking straight into Syrus's eyes. "Or is it that you don't have that kind of courage?"
"...I do! I do!" Syrus retorted loudly at the top of his lungs.
"Good, not bad, plenty of spirit." Rex glanced at Chazz and Jaden again, and the two immediately greeted him.
They'd met Rex Raptor several times and were relatively familiar with him.
"With that Amagi kid not here, don't you two have any more backbone than that?"
"Eh—" Jaden lightly scratched his right cheek with a finger.
He could have said it shamelessly, but he felt this occasion wasn't the right one for him to bring it up. Even if it were to be mentioned, it was more appropriate for Syrus to bring it up himself. And he was looking forward to Syrus being more proactive, too.
Chazz took a deep breath and understood: "Then, big bro Mokuba, please duel with Truesdale! He definitely won't disappoint you!
If the duel's result is impressive, you should be able to acknowledge and accept it, right? And that way, the government employees here won't say anything either, right?"
Indeed.
In an internal duel, for an outstanding duelist to gain recognition and then take the stage was quite persuasive. Even the officials here wouldn't say anything.
This time Mokuba Kaiba didn't hesitate. And besides, he very much wanted to try whether he could match up against a professional Duel Academy student.
The deck Syrus used was still his mixed deck combining Vehicroids and Vehicroid Connection Zone. As for Mokuba Kaiba, he used a "Thunder Dragon" deck.
His Thunder Dragon deck wasn't an ordinary Thunder Dragon deck. It was a deck replicated through KaibaCorp technology after Hikaru created "Thunder Dragon Colossus." He had three copies of every Thunder Dragon-related card, crushing Hikaru in sheer quantity. Besides that, he'd also seen other Thunder Dragons during his dimensional travels, so the deck's strength was quite good.
And while they were preparing to duel, time was also flowing.
The next round of duels.
The Pendulum Dimension delegation, VS, Team 5D's!
After the initial shock of "we actually ran into Team 5D's!?", the Pendulum Dimension's members gradually calmed down too.
So what if it's Team 5D's? So what if it's this dimension's "champion team"? So what if it's the team everyone in this world supports?
Watch them push this team back!
At this very moment, the two teams were fiercely exchanging views with each other from their respective battle-prep seats.
As mentioned before, prior to a major duel, both sides of each round could decide the final dueling format through discussion.
One was the conventional "1v1" match format, one was the fairly standard "best-of-three" format, and there was also the most orthodox one, conducted according to WRGP dueling: the relay duel!
Of course, because this competition involved duelists from all over the world and even from multiple dimensions, it hadn't been fixed as the orthodox relay duel like in the past, so the organizers were considering adopting the best-of-three format for later tournaments.
As for the current problem...
Team 5D's side wanted to duel their team's "Yuya Sakaki"!
"That Team 5D's guy!"
"This line was definitely sent by Light!"
Some time ago, Light had come to their battle-prep seats to talk with them in person. At that time, he'd displayed an above-average level of attention toward Yuya Sakaki. Several of them guessed that "Pendulum Summoning" must have caught that guy's attention.
So a few of the LDS members discussed it. To be precise, Yaiba Todo and Hokuto Shijima thought this was an excellent opportunity.
Let that guy who liked to talk nonsense properly learn how formidable they were!
And besides, with the WRGP having so many rounds of duels to get through, knowing Team 5D's members' cards and information in advance counted as a good thing to some degree.
"We're not going to let them learn our world's secret tactics! Todo, this is a great chance!" Hokuto Shijima said to Yaiba Todo.
Yaiba Todo nodded.
As a user of Synchro Summoning from the Pendulum Dimension, he was also very curious and very much wanted to duel a genuine Synchro duelist.
This was a rare opportunity!
He directly had the staff tell the other side that Yuya Sakaki wouldn't be taking the stage.
About a dozen-odd seconds later, another message came through.
"In that case, why don't we hold a standard relay duel? It's also a specialty of the Synchro Dimension, and the key matches of future WRGP tournaments may well be run this way."
The few of them looked at one another, not quite understanding the reply.
But after pondering for a while, Yuya Sakaki said hesitantly: "It's reasonable, isn't it, everyone? After all, we might have to take part in this kind of duel later, so getting used to it first is a good thing."
Indeed.
"Then let's go prepare. A relay duel should take a lot of time."
"Their first contestant has already been confirmed as Light."
"Then Todo, go for it!"
"Yeah!"
The group prepared their machines while testing their D-Wheels.
The City government was quite generous. Not only did they hand over D-Wheels free of charge to every member of the Pendulum team according to headcount, they even custom-made each one individually according to color and coordination.
Yaiba Todo's D-Wheel, for instance, was covered in all sorts of blade motifs. Those weren't real blades, but decorations, and they looked extremely cool.
Todo and the other two left the track, and then saw a duelist coming toward them from the other side...
Light!
"Huh. Where are your teammates?" Yaiba Todo instinctively muttered.
Hikaru swept a glance over the three, then said: "You know it too, right? In the WRGP tournament, intel is extremely important. In that case, taking the stage less is surely better."
"You bastard!" Blood rushed to Yaiba Todo's head. He charged up in front of Hikaru, about to grab his clothes and demand an explanation.
Beside him, Hokuto Shijima hurriedly held him back.
"Of course, more importantly... today is different."
What does "today is different" mean?
None of the three understood.
But the duel preparations had already begun.
And at this moment, Syrus and Mokuba Kaiba's duel ended. Mokuba Kaiba put away his cards in some shock.
He'd actually lost!?
The cards he used were the newly researched Thunder Dragon series cards.
Thunder Dragon Colossus's strength was also far greater than an ordinary monster's, and combined with the Synchro Summoning he'd learned as well, he'd still been defeated by Syrus.
In that case, he naturally wouldn't refuse Syrus any longer.
After all, his role as a reserve was actually more like that of an agent. If there was a stronger contestant to enter the competition, he was quite happy about it, and it would save him from leaking any information by participating in a duel later.
"Ah! Light is about to duel!"
Just as everyone was cheerful, sitting down to discuss what to do next, a spectator at the venue suddenly shouted.
Team 5D's!
The bunch of Fusion Dimension people hurriedly sat properly.
Team 5D's is dueling again!?
What would they see this time?
Ding. Dong.
The red light began to flash.
Then the green light came on!
Bang!
Light and Yaiba Todo charged straight out onto the track.
"You're someone who came from the Pendulum Dimension, so you probably don't understand Turbo Duels very well. I'll just leave the first move to you." Light didn't even want the first move.
"Hmph. Fine!"
"Duel!" ×2.
Pendulum Delegation, contestant No. 1, Yaiba Todo, LP: 4000. Team 5D's, LP: 4000.
"Huh?"
A spectator noticed a problem.
"Why is there only one person's icon on Team 5D's side!"
"What, what? A relay duel? Only one person is taking the stage?"
"Isn't there some mistake?"
"Team 5D's, don't be so arrogant, this won't be easy!"
"Oh no, are they going to lose?"
Some weren't optimistic.
One against three, no matter how you thought about it, was far too difficult!
But there were also those who believed that as long as Light's ace developed, there should be hope.
"Ace or no ace, if he wants to use Ultimate Offering, he'll have hardly any Life Points left. Even if he beats one person, all the opponent has to do is find some way to reduce your Life Points to zero, and wouldn't that be the end?"
For one person to fight three, the biggest problem was that 4000 LP was very hard to contend with 12000 LP. Especially since every opponent got to draw a full 5 cards. A duel like that was hardly so simple.
Even the spectators who trusted Team 5D's immensely were a bit nervous at this moment, and some even privately questioned Team 5D's strategy.
"My turn!"
The first move went to Yaiba Todo.
He glanced at his hand and gave a snorting laugh.
A perfect hand!
"Light, although I'm a duelist who came from the Pendulum Dimension, what I've been studying all along is Synchro Summoning. In my world, I achieved quite a high ranking using Synchro Summoning. Even the duel school I attended became famous."
He explained his own situation with a smile.
"He says he's a duelist who uses Synchro?"
"Ha, he's an inter-dimensional person, yet he uses Synchro?"
"So you've seen our dimension's outstanding summoning method after all, haven't you."
Yaiba Todo couldn't hear the spectators' voices, but he very much wanted to hear what Light, a native of this Synchro Dimension, would say.
"Is that so. That's pretty good, then."
A perfunctory answer.
"I don't care about that kind of thing." Light continued speaking to Yaiba Todo. "When it comes down to it, as a duelist, whether it's Synchro, Xyz, Fusion, or some other summoning method, it doesn't matter.
The truly crucial point is holding to your own choice, and firmly believing in what you believe.
Yaiba Todo, what you believe in, what you understand, is it really what you know?"
"Hmph! Nonsense, I don't understand a word of it." Yaiba Todo whipped out a monster and laid it on the field.
"Normal Summon XX-Saber Boggart Knight. Activated when this card is successfully summoned. I Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower X-Saber monster from my hand."
"Special Summon Level 3, the Tuner monster, XX-Saber Fulhelmknight!"
"Not done yet. While I control two or more X-Sabers, this card can be Special Summoned directly from the hand. Special Summon, XX-Saber Faultroll!"
"Whoa! He Special Summoned three monsters at once!"
"And there's a Tuner!"
"Looks like he really did learn quite a bit."
Quite a few spectators were rather satisfied with this student Yaiba Todo's performance. After all, although this development looked fairly conventional, he could Synchro Summon with it.
"Here it comes, I'm going to Synchro Summon!"
Yaiba Todo raised his hand. On the field, XX-Saber Fulhelmknight leapt straight into the air, then spun in place, turning into a whirlwind, and then became a green ring.
Boggart Knight slowly flew over, then blended into it, gradually becoming a transparent model, and then began changing its appearance.
"Wielding crossed blades, crossing over a mountain of corpses. Synchro Summon, Level 7!
X-Saber Souza!"
Draped in a tattered red cape, a swordsman with a smile that looked utterly benign held twin swords in an X and took the stage laughing.
X-Saber Souza. Level 7, EARTH Attribute, Warrior-Type. ATK 2500.
Light rode on, watching this swordsman's flight, without the slightest change in emotion.
"He Synchro Summoned a monster with 2500 ATK, enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Stardust Dragon!"
"That guy learned pretty well—"
"It's not over yet! I activate Faultroll's effect. Once per turn, targeting one Level 4 or lower monster in my Graveyard, I Special Summon that monster! Revive, XX-Saber Fulhelmknight!"
The short-sword swordsman revived once again, and then began to spin again.
"Whoa, he Special Summoned the Tuner monster he'd already used for a Synchro Summon!"
"Could it be that he's going to... continuously Synchro!"
"That's right! Next, I'll prove it using the continuous Synchro you're all best at. I tune the Level 3 Tuner monster Fulhelmknight and the Level 6 Faultroll!"
"Silver armor, shine! Shatter the hopes of those who turn their blades against me!"
"Synchro Summon!"
Two golden X's flickered on the monster's body, and an enormous double-edged sword carved a fierce gale through the air.
"Level 9, XX-Saber Gottoms!"
XX-Saber Gottoms. Level 9, EARTH Attribute, Beast-Warrior-Type. ATK 3100.
"3100 ATK?!"
"That's 100 higher than Red Dragon Archfiend!"
Speaking purely of ATK, Gottoms's attack power was already quite outstanding.
Light watched this monster with great interest.
However.
"I end my turn!"
"..."
Light rounded a curve.
Exactly the same development as in the original work.
Hikaru thought.
If you spoke at the level of a "student," this Yaiba Todo was absolutely stronger than the vast majority of first-year freshmen in the world he was from.
But if you spoke of him as a "Synchro duelist," then he fell far short.
"Yaiba Todo, the last time I asked Yuya Sakaki a question, you were present too. Now, I'll ask once more. If you're to 'know yourself and know your enemy,' to 'understand yourself,' do you really understand yourself?"
"Of course I do. How could I possibly not know myself!"
"Then do you know Gottoms's effect?"
"Gottoms can Tribute 1 X-Saber monster on my field to make the opponent randomly choose 1 card in their hand and discard it. That's quite a powerful effect."
"Ha. Of course I know that." Yaiba Todo said with a laugh, not even suspecting why the opponent knew this card's effect. "On the first move I first prepare monsters for protection, and by next turn I'll use other tactics to recover and expend, and then I can easily destroy your hand."
This was also his usual tactic. Back when he'd sparred with Gong in his own dimension, he'd dueled this way too.
"By then... by when?"
?
"No matter what kind of duelist you are, you always have to understand and think about your own tactics. Of course whittling down should be done at the very beginning—"
"Todo has his own ideas, he doesn't need you to tell him!" Over the duel comms, Hokuto Shijima couldn't help loudly retorting at Light.
"Hmph, and what do you know about us."
"What do I know about you? Hahaha, very interesting. Then let's begin my turn. Draw."
Light drew a card, then without even looking at it, placed it on the D-Wheel's slot. Immediately after, a card in his hand flew out.
He caught the card, glanced down at it, and understood.
"Since you want to ask how much I understand about you, then why don't you take a look at this. I set the Scale 9 Pendulum Monster Qliphort Scout in the Pendulum Zone!"
"What!?" Yaiba Todo's face drained of color.
"What!?" Nearly everyone from the Pendulum Dimension shot to their feet in shock.
Hokuto Shijima and Masumi Kotsu, standing by to relay in, froze stiff on the spot.
Yuya Sakaki, watching the duel, had his pupils contract as he stared open-mouthed at this scene.
Setting a Pendulum Scale?!
"What, what???"
"A Pendulum Scale!?"
"Isn't that the thing that guy from the Pendulum Dimension uses!?"
Yuya Sakaki had competed before, so the spectators weren't very unfamiliar with Pendulum anymore.
But at this very moment, seeing one of their own actually pull out a "Pendulum" card, they were all dumbfounded.
There was another expert!?
"It's actually... a Pendulum card." Yaiba Todo stared blankly, then shook his head.
No wonder this guy kept asking us about knowing yourself and knowing your enemy. So this guy obtained Pendulum too?
But it doesn't matter.
It's just Pendulum, isn't it? I've seen it!
And it's only one card...
"I activate Scout's Pendulum effect. Once per turn, I pay 800 Life Points to activate. I add 1 Qli card other than Scout from my Deck to my hand. I add Qliphort Monolith to my hand and set it.
Its Scale is... 1."
Light, LP: 4000 → 3200.
Ah!
"This way, from the monsters in my hand and face-up in my Extra Deck, I can Special Summon as many Qli monsters of Levels 2 through 8 as possible!"
He whipped up the cards in his hand.
"Qliphort Helix! Qliphort Carrier!"
Two machines of differing appearance, both utterly bizarre in shape, rose up from behind Light.
"Two high-Level monsters! He Special Summoned them all at once??"
"So, so this is Pendulum Summoning?"
Some people who hadn't watched Yuya Sakaki's duel before, seeing Light Special Summon two monsters all at once, all showed dumbfounded expressions.
"A Qli Pendulum Monster that's Special Summoned or Normal Summoned directly without Tributing has its Level become 4 and its ATK become 1800."
Whew.
If it's only 1800 ATK, then it's no big deal...
"Have you forgotten something?"
Forgotten something?
!!
Ah!
Light leisurely raised a card in his hand.
"To Normal Summon this monster, I must Tribute 3 Qli monsters on my field."
"I equip Saqlifice to Helix. This way, it can be Tributed as two monsters."
"I Tribute all three Qli monsters on my field, sending them to the Extra Deck, and Normal Summon!
Apoqliphort Towers!"
We're finished!
Apoqliphort Towers. Level 10, EARTH Attribute, Machine-Type. ATK 3000.
This is bad. Now, even whittling down Light's hand would be useless!
"There are still effects, Yaiba Todo! Don't space out!"
"Helix's effect: when it's Tributed, I target one monster on the field to activate. That monster returns to its owner's hand. I choose Gottoms. Saqlifice's effect: activated when this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard. I add 1 Qli monster from my Deck to my hand. I add Qliphort Stealth to my hand."
Yaiba Todo's expression shifted, his eyes darkening, as he watched Gottoms on the field get intercepted by an enormous machine and then sent straight back to his own Extra Deck.
"Pendulum Summoning, a tactic that can perform Special Summons directly." Hikaru spoke in a low voice. "For powerful high-Level monsters, this is indeed an extremely convenient thing.
But is there another possibility? Namely, that this summoning method also supports other summoning methods."
Yaiba Todo looked at him.
"Pendulum Monsters sent from the field to the Graveyard go straight to the Extra Deck and remain there face-up, so next turn you can Pendulum Summon again and Special Summon them back to the field. In other words, next turn, if my Deck has a second Apoqliphort Towers, then I can use Scout's effect to search out Towers, then Pendulum Summon to Special Summon 3 Tribute fodder, and then Tribute Summon a second Towers."
Yaiba Todo's eyes went wide. He heard the danger in it, and also... the possibility.
"Conversely, if you have a card that's both a Tuner and a Pendulum Monster, then you can Synchro Summon every single turn! If you have a Pendulum Monster that can serve as Fusion Material on the field, then you can Fusion Summon every single turn!
Pendulum Summoning holds a great many possibilities."
He looked straight at Yaiba Todo: "Have you ever thought about that, Yaiba Todo?"
Ugh—
"Heheh... Apoqliphort Towers's effect. Once per turn, activated during my Main Phase. The opponent must send 1 monster from their hand or field to the Graveyard."
Yaiba Todo looked at his hand, then looked at the monsters on his field.
If he discarded this monster in his hand, his chances of fighting again next turn would suddenly shrink!
But if he didn't discard the monster in his hand, he'd have to take 3000 points of damage!
At this moment, he finally understood the meaning of what Light had said earlier.
Rather than just standing two monsters on the field, it might have been better to Tribute Souza and Gottoms to whittle down two of Light's hand cards.
And now... it was too late.
"I send Souza on my field to the Graveyard."
For the sake of hope afterward, Yaiba Todo had to discard a monster on his field at this moment!
"Good, a wise judgment. Then, Apoqliphort Towers, direct attack!"
The enormous machine slowly gathered a beam of light, then, with a roar, pierced through the earth!
"Waaaaahhh—" His body, beneath the light, looked somewhat charred, and for an instant even turned into a little black stick figure.
Yaiba Todo, LP: 4000 → 1000.
"Damn it..."
Hikaru glanced over and offhandedly placed a hand card onto the field.
"I Set one card and end my turn.
At this instant, Qliphort Monolith's Pendulum effect activates. It's activated during the End Phase of a turn in which I successfully Tribute Summoned. I draw from my Deck a number of cards equal to the number of Qli monsters I Tributed for the Tribute Summon this turn. I draw two cards."
Hikaru drew two cards from his Deck, then placed them on the D-Wheel's slot.
He drew two more cards!
Yaiba Todo's heart sank.
He could already Pendulum Summon to begin with, and now he'd replenished two more hand cards. At this point, if Yaiba wanted to use hand-stripping tactics, it was probably too late!
"My turn, draw!"
Whoosh.
He glanced at his hand.
Beautiful!
He'd drawn a usable card!
"Looks like you drew a useful card?"
Yaiba Todo looked up, then glanced at Light's Set card.
Never mind, in any case.
"Normal Summon, XX-Saber Ragigura. When this card is successfully Normal or Special Summoned, I can target 1 'X-Saber' monster in my Graveyard to activate. That monster is added to my hand. I'm adding Faultroll to my hand!"
"That won't do."
!??
"Open Set card. Continuous Trap Card, Re-qliate! Re-qliate's effect: when a monster is Normal Summoned or Flip Summoned, if that monster is Level 4 or lower, I activate this effect. That monster's effects are negated until the end of the turn."
"Damn it!" Hokuto Shijima slapped the broadcast screen on his D-Wheel.
Masumi Kotsu realized too that Yaiba Todo was probably in danger.
It was very hard to break through the current board.
"Let me go next. My monster has higher ATK and can beat Apoqliphort Towers!" Masumi Kotsu hurriedly said to Hokuto Shijima.
If Hokuto Shijima insisted on going at this point, it would just add another entry to Apoqliphort Towers's win record.
But even so, facing this board alone was still a lot of pressure.
"...Effects of Level 4 or lower monsters are negated. Let me guess, that card wouldn't happen to also be able to negate monsters Level 5 and above, would it?"
"Your guess is quite accurate." Hikaru replied politely. "When a monster is Special Summoned, if that monster is Level 5 or higher, I can activate its effect. That monster's effects are negated until the end of the turn, and if it leaves the field, it is banished outright."
Even more severe than Level 4!
And it specifically countered Synchro Summoning!
He looked at the "Monster Reborn" he'd just drawn in his hand and felt somewhat helpless.
Although he could use this card to revive Souza, Souza's effect, "When this card battles a monster, at the start of the damage step, activate. That monster is destroyed," was useless against Apoqliphort Towers!
And because he hadn't recovered Faultroll, he had no way to perform continuous development either.
With his current hand, there was definitely no way to defeat his opponent.
The only thing he could think to do was... swap out his hand.
"Spell Card, Monster Reborn. Revive Souza from the Graveyard."
"Then, Spell Card, Sacred Sword of Seven Stars. Banish Souza, draw two cards."
Quite a few of his Synchro Monsters were Level 7 cards, so this card was perfectly usable.
After drawing, he glanced at his hand and actually breathed a sigh of relief.
"Spell Card, Giant Trunade! All Spell and Trap Cards on both fields return to the hand!"
A fierce gale howled, and all the cards were blown up by the wind. The two mechanical creatures floating at Hikaru's side also returned to Hikaru's hand beneath the gale.
He looked at his hand, saying nothing.
"Next, Card Destruction!" Yaiba Todo played his next card.
"Both players discard their entire hands, then draw the same number of cards!"
"Beautiful. This way, the Pendulum Scales and that troublesome Trap all go to the Graveyard!" Seeing this scene, Yuya Sakaki hurriedly cheered for his teammate.
When he'd seen Re-qliate, he really had broken out in a cold sweat for Yaiba Todo. He hadn't expected that in this kind of situation, Todo could still find a way to deal with the terrible board.
Only... only, he probably had no way to hold out any longer.
Hikaru offhandedly sent all the cards he'd drawn to the Graveyard.
"Sorry, Kotsu, Shijima. It looks like this is as far as I go!" All Yaiba Todo could do now was trust his teammates.
"It's fine, you've already cleared the obstacles for us!" One of the core tactics of a relay duel was cooperation and groundwork between teammates!
"That's right!"
"Turn... end."
Hikaru's turn. He drew a card, glanced at it, then silently Set it face-down.
"Apoqliphort Towers's effect. Once per turn, you must send a monster from your hand or field to the Graveyard!"
"Bring it on!!" Yaiba Todo strained to raise his voice. "I send the monster on my field to the Graveyard."
"Then, once more, direct attack!"
The pillar of light crashed down. The rainbow-like D-Wheel track erupted with an earth-shaking roar, and amid the thunderous noise, Yaiba Todo was flung straight off his D-Wheel and slammed to the ground.
"Todo!" "Yaiba!" His friends and classmates called out his name, worried for him.
And on the other side, because he'd defeated one opponent, Light's turn was forcibly ended, and the turn would once again pass to the Pendulum exchange team.
Masumi Kotsu gritted her teeth, leapt onto her gorgeous jeweled D-Wheel, and accelerated forward in wild pursuit.
Because at this stage of the WRGP tournament the entire track wasn't a "loop" but a straight line, after a contestant went down, that contestant didn't need to push their vehicle back to their own starting point. But correspondingly, since he had after all defeated an opponent, the competition still tilted in favor of the "advantaged side." That is, he could take this chance to hurry and cover more distance.
But as Masumi Kotsu joined the duel, Light's D-Wheel speed would gradually slow back down, returning to normal speed.
"As expected of Team 5D's, this is just too strong!"
"Strong, sure, but at bottom isn't it that the Todo kid just wasn't strong enough?"
"Exactly... though being able to force out Light's Pendulum is already impressive."
"But, using Pendulum, using Tribute-Summoned monsters, is this guy really suitable? What on earth is going on with Team 5D's?"
"It's meaningless. Say what you like, it's one against three. Now the Pendulum and the Traps are all gone, so it'll be hard to fight, won't it?"
These spectators of this world lavished praise on Team 5D's Light, because the stronger Team 5D's was, the more "face" they had before the other dimensions, and the more they felt a sense of personal investment.
Conversely, seeing Light defeat his opponent with this kind of tactic, quite a few people from the Fusion Dimension felt regret.
Some of them really did think Light might be Hikaru. If Light really were Hikaru, then Syrus and Atticus Rhodes's belief that "Polaris is Zane Truesdale" would have a real possibility worth pursuing.
But now, it was very hard to believe that this person using Tribute Summons was Hikaru!
His understanding of Pendulum Summoning and of Tribute Summoning was truly astonishing. He really seemed more like a native of this dimension.
Of course, there were also some people who grew even more suspicious of Light's identity.
Too high an understanding of Pendulum and of Tribute Summoning?
Is there a problem with that?
For the sake of better Fusion, Hikaru studies absolutely everything!
Hikaru took a moment to glance at the comments, showed little reaction, and heard the roar in the distance.
Here she comes?
His vehicle's speed dropped, though he hadn't run very far to begin with.
At bottom, the duel had gone too fast; it hadn't lasted long at all.
Pendulum Exchange Team, member No. 2, Masumi Kotsu, LP: 4000.
"My turn, draw!"
Masumi Kotsu looked at the cards in her hand. That bizarre premonition grew clearer and clearer. She shook her head, looked straight ahead, and gazed at Light's back.
"Activate Spell Card, Scatter Fusion!"
"Huh?" At this instant, everyone from the Fusion Dimension let out a sound of surprise.
It was actually... Scatter Fusion?
At the same time, Shijima had also rushed to where Yaiba Todo had crashed and landed. He hurriedly hoisted him up and helped him wheel the bike out. As he walked, he gave a laugh: "Kotsu is a duelist who uses Fusion Summoning. Although Apoqliphort Towers has 3000 ATK, all you need is to exceed 3000!
And Yaiba already cleared away all the trouble! Kotsu can absolutely defeat that guy!"
That's right!
Although it was unaffected by Spells, Traps, and even monsters of lower Level than itself, as long as your ATK exceeded its, there was no problem!
"Scatter Fusion's effect: activated when the opponent controls a monster. I send the Fusion Materials listed on a Gem-Knight Fusion Monster card, other than Rock-Type ones, from my Deck to the Graveyard, and Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck. When this card leaves the field, that monster is destroyed. After this effect activates, until the end of the turn, I can't Special Summon non-Gem-Knight monsters from my Extra Deck.
I send Gem-Knight Garnet and Gem-Knight Sapphire from my Deck to the Graveyard."
"Fusion Summon, Level 6, Gem-Knight Ruby!"
A crimson knight, wielding a battle axe, appeared beside the girl!
Gem-Knight Ruby. Level 6, EARTH Attribute, Pyro-Type. ATK 2500 → 2000.
"Ohh!!! Gem-Knight!"
"It's actually a Gem-Knight—"
"Getting to see a Gem-Knight in another dimension is really rare."
The Fusion Dimension duelists, seeing this card, immediately felt a surge of kinship.
After all, this was the series of cards that the famous "Hikaru" loved to use!
"Fusion Summoning, that's the thing that, uh, that person before liked to use, right?"
"That youth from the Fusion Dimension called Hikaru, that youth really likes Fusion Summoning."
"I didn't expect the Pendulum Dimension to have duelists who use Fusion Summoning too. What a rich and colorful world."
In this city, because of Hikaru's many past competitions, duels, and rescues, the old contempt for "Fusion Summoning" as an "ancient" summoning method had gradually faded.
But they were still highly suspicious.
After all, a Synchro summoner's teammate using Fusion or whatever, no matter how you looked at it, was pretty strange.
"Fusion Summoning? It's certainly one of the extremely convenient summoning methods. So, back to the earlier question, Masumi Kotsu, do you know your enemy and know yourself, and do you understand yourself?"
"I..." Masumi Kotsu remembered the time Zuzu was attacked and she'd had no way to help.
The cause of that day was precisely that Light had asked this question, and she'd been tangled up in it ever since. If she'd been able to think it through back then, Zuzu might not have suffered that and been frightened.
But getting an answer at this moment was extremely difficult too.
"I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that when you duel, you win."
"Normal Summon, Gem-Knight Alexandrite. By its effect, I Tribute it and Special Summon 1 Gem-Knight Normal Monster from my Deck!"
"Tribute it to Special Summon from the Deck, Gem-Knight Crystal!"
"Whoa! Captain Crystal—"
"It's Crystal! That little girl is pretty impressive."
Although Crystal was only a simple, perfectly ordinary monster with 2450 ATK, for the Fusion Dimension spectators, Crystal's existence held an extremely special meaning.
"Ohh..." Beside Hikaru, Crystal rarely appeared of its own accord, staring in shock at the figure across from them.
It could sense energy almost identical to its own current state, yet it couldn't recognize at all who among the Knight Order the other one was.
That goddess called Sophia's "creation" could actually perfectly replicate a card exactly like itself from its Knight Order days...
Hikaru heard its assessment and responded with a couple of sounds, acknowledging its view.
Just like Tierra, clearly Sophia might not understand card games, but creating life was as simple as breathing for her. No wonder she could spread so many cards through the Pendulum Dimension.
"Ruby's effect. Once per turn, I Tribute 1 other face-up Gem monster on my field to activate. This card's ATK increases by the Tributed monster's ATK until the end of the turn! I Tribute Crystal!"
At the same time, the Fusion Dimension members watching the duel through the screen only had to see Crystal take the field to know what was coming next.
"Beautiful. This way we can deal with Apoqliphort Towers!"
"As expected, Crystal really is amazing!"
The surrounding spectators, watching them cheer, were a bit confused.
What does this have to do with Crystal?
The Crystal on Masumi Kotsu's field turned into a pure white crystal and set itself into Ruby's body. Then the great axe in Ruby's hand began to swell drastically.
Gem-Knight Ruby, ATK: 2000 → 4450.
"4450 ATK!"
"Whoa, that's way higher than Red Dragon Archfiend! Even that Malefic deck can't compare!"
"This way, it exceeds Apoqliphort Towers! It can destroy Apoqliphort Towers!"
"Whoa... she actually took care of that super-troublesome Apoqliphort Towers all at once..."
Masumi Kotsu took a deep breath and pointed at Apoqliphort Towers in the sky: "Battle! Ruby attacks Apoqliphort Towers!"
Gem-Knight Ruby swung the battle axe in its hands and charged at Apoqliphort Towers.
The enormous axe cleaved into Apoqliphort Towers's central controller. With a crack, Apoqliphort Towers burst apart from the middle with a roar!
Boom!!!
The towering machine began to disintegrate. Some of its fragments fell to the ground, erupting with an almost tangible tremor. One fragment even nearly struck Light, grazing past his head.
Light, LP: 3200 → 1750. Ruby, ATK: 4450 → 4950.
"How about it? Now you've got no options left, right!?" Masumi Kotsu psyched herself up.
Apoqliphort Towers wasn't a Pendulum Monster, so once destroyed by battle it went to the Graveyard and had no way to take the field again. And without Apoqliphort Towers, her opponent's Life Points weren't enough to use the Ultimate Offering tactic either!
She could win!
"I Set two cards and end my turn."
The smoke and dust gradually cleared, and Light's figure charged out from the rubble and thick smoke. Because he'd taken heavy damage, his speed had grown somewhat slow.
And it was precisely because of this that Masumi Kotsu gradually caught up to him.
He looked at the auto-piloting Masumi Kotsu, and the mask on his face slowly began to crack.
The upper-left corner of the mask began to crumble, and because of this, Masumi Kotsu could see the eye beneath his mask, the true color of that eye.
An enormous close-up appeared before everyone watching this duel.
What kind of eye was that?
Beneath the purple iris seemed to hide mystery and force of presence, brewing in the darkness, as if it might erupt at any moment.
Quite a few spectators, upon seeing that eye, were already captivated. Many even lost their voices on the spot.
And in the Fusion Dimension, everyone cried out in shock!
He looked at Masumi Kotsu, and Masumi Kotsu, meeting his gaze head-on, was the one most obviously affected.
She looked at that eye, and it was as if something in her heart had been infected.
"A beautiful handling of it. Although Apoqliphort Towers is unaffected by Spell and Trap cards, and even unaffected by most monster effects, in the end it's still a monster. If you can't deal with it by effect, then destroy it directly by battle. Very wise."
Masumi Kotsu felt her heart pounding.
"But I still have that same question!
Do you really understand yourselves!"
"!!!" Masumi Kotsu didn't even dare to speak at this moment.
"Then, it's my turn. Draw."
He glanced down, offhandedly removed his mask, set it on the D-Wheel, and revealed his true face. Then, even more, even louder, mountain-shaking and sea-churning cries of shock rang out.
"Since you're using Fusion...
Activate Continuous Spell Card, Scatter Fusion!"