Dueling life in a futuristic world

 A giant die appears close to us and, like last time, we send Haruna up to kick it into the arena. The die bounces against the slightly curved wall and its counterpart before landing with a clear 5.

 I don’t have to look at the other die to know we won the dice toss, as Mia yells. “I’ll go first!” and draws her hand of five. Good thing too, monarch is a go first kind of deck that can shutdown others easily. But its second turn play is kind of weak, as disruption cards take most of the heavy lifting and board clearing options are scarce, mostly localized with a single spell card.

 Her opponent, dressed in a casual hoodie and sweatpants, clicks his tongue while Mia happily smiles and starts her turn.

 [Standby Phase, Main Phase 1]

 She grabs a card and declares. “From my hand, I activate the spell card ‘Pot of Desires.’ I will banish 10 cards from the top of my deck face down to draw 2. It’s practically pot of greed!”

 

 That pot of greed comment almost elicits a smirk from me. Of course pot of greed was banned but desires, a cash grab of a retrain, was at three.

 Her opponent is clearly a little miffed about it. “It’s a minus 9, you dingus. You’re using 11 cards to draw 2.”

 She laughs and draws her two cards. “Like I care about cards I didn’t even draw. But I will activate ‘Reinforcement of the Army!’ Adding ‘Edea The Heavenly Squire’ from the deck to my hand and I will also activate the continuous spell card ‘Return of the Monarks!’”

“Here it comes, ladies and gentlemen! Let’s see why they call Mia the ‘Top Monarch!’ Get ready for a show!”

 The crowd cheers and Mia goes in, shouting at the stands. “Get ready everyone! I normal summon ‘Edea The Heavenly Squire’ and, using her effect, I bring ‘Eidos The Underworld Squire’ to the field!”

 A unit of a knight clad in pristine silver plate armor with golden highlights materializes between Mia and her opponent, chased by a shadow figure with brilliant beady red eyes who crouches and holds their arms out in a cross.

 Mia holds a card out with her right hand and shouts. “Using the effect of Eidos, I tribute both of my monsters to tribute summon! ‘Ehther The Heavenly Monarch!’” Both monsters turn into light energy, which crashes into her card. A bright flash emits from the arena and an enormous angelic being emerges.

 The audience goes wild and we capitalize on it with a special dance routine. Finishing with a series of wild somersaults and another cringy chant.

 Mia focuses her attention on her monster and continues her turn. “The on-summon effect of Ehther activates! Followed by Return of the Monarchs effect. With this I add ‘Kuraz the Light Monarch’ from the deck and, using Ehther’s effect, send ‘Pantheism of the Monarchs’ and ‘The Prime Monarch’ to the grave to special summon another Monarch”

 The angelic figure raises its golden staff, glowing, and a crack opens on the ground, revealing the card she searched, followed by another flash of light, which diminishes to reveal a copy of the first monster.

 “Next, I activate Pantheism’s effect from the grave, banishing it to show three cards, one of which you will have to choose to add to my hand.” A wide, smug smile grows on her face as three identical cards get projected above the field. “Of course, it won’t be much of a choice.”

 Her opponent sighs and chooses one of them, ‘Domain of the Monarchs.’

 Mia cheerfully grabs that card and puts it her hand. “Thanksies!” she exclaims, putting up a piece sign above her head before settling down again. “I will activate the card you just gave me, the true hunting ground of my monsters! I activate ‘Domain of the Monarchs.’”

 The lights of the venue dim sharply, and an eery fog rolls in, partially covering the arena. A tall closed door rises behind her, followed by a throne in front about the size of her monster, and various masked figures materialize, kneeling at the throne.

 “Hehehe!” Mia giggles. “Look at this. Well, I think that was good. I end my turn.”

[End Phase]

“At this point the special summoned Ehther Monarch goes to my hand.” Mia informs.

The announcer on her opponent’s cheer team grabs the mic and starts. “And that’s the end of NWDA’s turn! What a fantastic show! Now let the SFI reveal what its got! Go Arvin! Bloom into full potential!”

‘Uh, no shit talk?’ Sportsmanship is very rare here indeed. In these last 3 duels, all of them consisted of constant insults being thrown around between us and the other cheer team. Which only worked to embarrass their contender when they lost in a single turn… Maybe they just realized that the NWDA isn’t playing around.

[“Draw Phase”]

The short black-haired duelist opposite of Mia exclaims. “DRAW!” and draws his turn card.

[Standby Phase, Main Phase 1]

He smiles upon seeing his hand. “I activate the spell card ‘The Melody of Awakening Dragon!’ By discarding another copy of Melody from my hand, I—”

“Sorry to interrupt, but I’ll chain the effect of Ehther from my hand. By banishing ‘The Prime Monarch’ from the grave I will tribute summon Ehther.”

“The NWDA can’t seem to let go of the accelerator! Another summon and this time on our turn! How will Arvin respond, I wonder?”

He smiles and declares. “Fine, the chain resolves.”

The first Ehther on the field disintegrates, only to be replaced by an identical monster an instant later.

 After Mia's done with her move, the boy grabs two cards from his duel disk and exclaims. “I will add two copies of Blue-Eyes Chaos Max Dragon from the deck to my hand.”

…

‘Ohhh, shit.’ I realise at this moment what he’s playing and considering Mia’s board position… Yeah, this is not good…

But Mia continues smiling, probably unaware of what’s going to happen. “Before you continue, I will activate the effect of Ehther to send another copy of ‘The Prime Monarch’ and ‘Domain of the True Monarchs’ from the deck to the grave to special summon...” she trails off, grabbing a card from her duel disk's opening and holding it up high. “Come out ‘Erebus The Underworld Monarch!’”

 An enormous monster emerges behind Mia and sits down on the throne that her field spell brought into the arena. It’s got fantastical black plate armor and two horns growing out of its helm.

 The spring institute commentator remains silent, and the boy down in the arena simply nods. “Very well, I normal summon Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands.”

 A strange blob with a single face and tens of viewable hands appears opposite of Mia. It’s a small monster, but its effect will be the determiner in this duel.

 Obviously, he knows that much and declares. “I will use the effect of Thousand hands to add—”

 “Huh, huh, huh!” Mia interrupts.

 ‘Wait, please tell me she has a disruption card!’

 “I banish ‘Domain of the True Monarchs’ from the grave to activate the effect of ‘The Prime Monarch.’ Special summoning it in defense position.”

 She places the card down. Making a set of curtains raise over a part of the field.

 “It seems like the NWDA isn’t letting up on the special summons, even if it’s not on their turn! Will this defender be able to stop whatever Arvin has in store for them? I’m not sure~.”

 ‘Well, at least they’re getting smug now. Honestly, its was kind of unsettling not having someone shit talk us during this duel.’

 ‘Arvin,’ nods once again. Seems like that’s his response to everything. “Fine, due to circumstances, Manju will only add ‘Advanced Ritual Art’ to my hand.”

‘Which means he has three copies of Chaos Max in his hand… Oh boy.’

He raises a card up high and shouts. “NOW! I ACTIVATE ADVANCED RITUAL ART! By sending a ‘Blue-Eyes White Dragon’ from the deck to the grave, I RITUAL SUMMON!”

 A stone structure emerges over the arena, and a cyan blue magical circle shines above the marble, letting out a thin pillar of light that emanates sparks which hit the barrier protecting the stands. Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of protection.

 “ARTG!!” I hear to my right and turn to find Nanako kneeling on the projected platform, smoke still rising from the place she got hit on the left side of her stomach.

 The three of us drop our pompons and race over to her.

 “Are you okay?” Haruna asks in shaky voice.

 Nana is grunting and drawing in deep breaths. “Gnyt! Y-Yeah! J-Just a shock. That’s all.”

 From the look on her face, I can see she’s not fine at all. She’s having trouble breathing in, and Neako, being a knowledgeable in medicine due to her specialization with nanobot body modifications, isn’t missing that.

 “How about we get you down into a sleeper? You won’t be able to go on like this.” she suggests.

 Back down in the arena, the SFI’s duelist continues. “COME ON OUT ‘BLUE EYES CHAOS MAX DRAGON!’”

 

 The ritual spell flashes with a blueish light, and an enormous metallic dragon cries out and rises above the spectator stands.

 We ignore that for now and focus on Nanako, who kept huffing and puffing until now. “S-Shit! Not like this! HAA!”

 Naeko turns to us and tells. “I’ll go down with her. Can you two continue?”

 Me and Haruna turn to each other. Both of us stammer, confused at what to do here. It’s true that Nanako can’t go on her own in this state, and Naeko has more medical experience than us, so she would be the best to send along. But… It would leave us two solo, something we hadn’t ever planned.

 Eventually, we hear another call from down in the arena, which makes the decision for us.

 The little monster from the Spring forest institute calls out. “I’m not done!” and grabs another card. “By sending another Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the deck to the grave, I activate my other ‘Advanced Ritual Art!’”

 Another pillar of light raises into the sky and we urge Naeko and Nanako into a corner of the platform, signaling to the staff below to bring that spot down. It does so, and we are left to face the lighting alone.

 We have to jump between rays of lightning; I don’t know why our platform isn’t going behind the shield for this. I know it does that in the battle phase, but this is almost as dangerous.

 It ends with another dragon flying out of the ritual site and flying around the stands. The audience is too fixated on that to even notice what’s happening over here, but I’m not complaining.

 When the dragons finally settle down, their cheer team goes in with this gem of a comment. “Oh, no! It looks like a couple of NWDA cheerleaders could not handle our institute’s brightest summoning… Anyway, what a fantastic performance from Arvin! Let those twin dragons bring you victory!”

 ‘Yeah, talk about not being toxic. Guess they were just waiting for this to lay down the shit talk.’

 Meanwhile, down in the arena, Mia keeps her smile even through this and even says. “Woah! Such majestic monsters!...”

 “Tch, gawk while you still can.” Her opponent spits back. “I set a card face-down. Battle!”

 [Battle Phase]

 He points a finger at Mia and says, “Chaos Max N1! Attack the Heavenly Monarch! And Chaos Max N2! Attack the Underworld Monarch!”

 Both dragons prepare to attack, flying high into the air and drawing in particles of energy, which form into balls of blue power inside their mouths. Getting ready to unleash a powerful attack.

 But, for me, what’s more surprising than the attack is their targeting. ‘Why did he not attack the defense position Prime Monarch? It would do double piercing damage… Not lethal but… More effective. Maybe he actually feels bad about it? No, that’s… Crazy, right?’

 The dragons finish drawing energy and spit forth two massive beams of white lightning. Each beam targets one of Mia’s Monarchs. Ehther is the first to get hit, vanishing into the light blinding white light, while the underworld monarch simply sits on his throne, as if it was taunting the attack itself.

 It doesn’t take more than the second for Mia’s remaining monster to vanish. But the attack doesn’t stop there. It only weakens, leaving the rest of the attack is left for Mia to handle. Two thin beams of light graze her skin, leaving burn marks where they touch.

 “AAHHH!!” she screams in pain, covering the blistering burn marks with both hands.

[ 

 New Worlds Dueling Academy LP: 5600

 Spring Forest Institute LP: 8000

]

 Only Prime Monarch is left on Mia’s field, while Arvin has two gigantic dragons and an inhuman blob that is too weak to attack over Prime Monarch.

 Her opponent looks at her with droopy, apathetic eyes and declares in a downward tone. “I will end my turn here. Good luck Mia.”