Dueling life in a futuristic world

 When the director told me I would go to this tournament as a cheerleader, I was mad. No, I was LIVID. Not because I wouldn’t get to duel - fuck that, these people aren’t even fun, much less a challenge - but because I never wanted to be in a situation like this.

 Aya is down there, facing whatever Anna, a considerably more skilled opponent, has to finish her and I’m here staring at it. It’s one thing to not be able to help, it’s another when you can’t help but have to watch.

 Still, Anna’s turn was what I expected, and she even left a freebie.

 “I normal summon ash blossom from my hand in Attack position and flip up my field spell! ‘Orcustrated Babel’!”

 I hear her through the small earpiece in my ear instead of the arena speakers; There is no air between them and us now. Funny how the copula around this arena breaking didn’t phase anyone, almost like the designers had made it to be broken. It’s an interesting gimmick.

 The space around us (literally) got a lot dimmer because of a massive tower appearing about a few hundred meters away from us, backdropping for the massive monster. A small fairy creature also joined the giant, shimmering in the light.

 Still, I wonder why Anna would do something so stupid. Last time I won against her because of a monster which had no business being on the field. But that was a hand trap she was putting in the trash.

 ‘Is she taunting Aya? Maybe even me?’ I speculate.

 “With this, I end my turn! Show me what she thought you Aya!”

 “AND WE’RE OUT! WHAT WILL THE NWDA DO AGAINST THIS BEAST!? ONLY TIME WILL TELL!”

 Aya nods, and with a sleek movement pulls out her turn card. “DRAW!”

 This is my queue to move in. “LADIES AND GENTELMENT! You’ve seen the CSG’s giants, but don’t underestimate our duelists’ ability to match that move. I’ve her that her deck is quite EXPLOSIVE!”

 Yup, it's my turn to be the announcer today. Haruna had her usual reservations about it, but this was a duel between a skilled (for this world) duelist and one I trained myself. If there were any stupid plays, it would be my fault for not correcting them earlier.

 To distract the still amazed crowd from the Dingirsu, I press a button on my duel disk. This made various accessories appear on me, Haruna and Naeko. Cat ears and tails, to be more specific, and large cat paws, which made it difficult to move my fingers.

 “GO! GO! NWDA! NYA˜! NYA˜!” the three of us call out while moving our hips, making the tails and ears move around, and waving the cat paws to the left and right.

 I promise, this isn’t just something I thought would get the Audience’s attention, it also has to do with Aya’s deck.

[Standby Phase]

 Anna pauses the turn progression and announces. “I activate Knightmare Orcust’s effect in grave! By banishing it, I target Dingirsu and send Harp Horror to the grave. This will add 400 ATK points to Dingirsu’s 2600, resulting in 3000 ATK!”

 The giant grows by a few meters, far too small for it to be notable.

 “Next, I activate Harp Horror’s effect. Banishing it to special summon Orcust Knightmare from my deck in defense position.”

 Another being exits through the crack in space Dingirsu opened and yet another mechanical beast stands next to Dingirsu.

[Main Phase 1]

 I look at a small AR window on my duel gazer’s display and smile.

 “IT’S TIME! GO AYA! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU TRAINED FOR!!”

 My words are probably confusing to a lot of the spectators, but Aya knows them well. Her hand is nutty.

 She perks up and grabs a card from her hand, holding it up. “I activate the effect of ‘Danger! Bigfoot’” she puts the card back with the rest. After shuffling her hand, she says. “You get to choose one card in my hand. If that card is not Danger Bigfoot, I’ll discard it, special summon bigfoot and draw 1 card.”

 Anna smirks and opens with a scoff. “Ha, okay, I’ll pick your fourth card.”

 Aya reveals the card Anna picked with a smirk of her own. “I’ll gladly discard ‘Orcust Harp Horror,’ and special summon Bigfoot in defense position, drawing one card after that.”

 Seeing a big hairy beast appear in the arena, I decided it now would be the best time to comment on it. “Aya’s deck is proficient at overwhelming her opponents. As this duel plays out, we’ll see a lot more of that! Give me a shout! NWDA!”

 Anna’s smirk grows into a light frown, then into a smile again. “Oooooh… AHAHHAHHAH!” She breaks down laughing at the whole thing. After a few seconds, she clears up again, looking directly at me. “So, this is what you had for me? Interesting. My dueling against Aya with your deck building? Got to admit, you have a weird sense of humor penta-summoner.”

 I obviously stay silent. My role here isn’t arguing with her, just giving my comments on the duel skewed in Aya’s favor.

 Aya grabs another card from her hand and yells. “NEXT! I normal summon ‘Lunalight Kaleido Chick’ activating her effect to send ‘Lunalight Yellow Marten’ from deck to grave. I’ll follow that up using the effect of another ‘Lunalight Yellow Marten’ from my hand, returning Kaleido Chick back and summoning Yellow Marten.”

 A compact figure with Human features hits the field, but quickly tags out for Yellow Marten, a moderate framed human like monster with the ears of a bear and tail of a fox dressed in a one piece leotard with frills. It joins the hairy cryptid in the arena.

 “After that, I’ll activate ‘Danger Tsuchinoko.’ You’ll have to pick another card, if you don’t mind.”

 Anna sighs and complies.

 The card she makes Aya discard is ‘World Legacy - World Wand.’ Another Orcust support piece.

 But the card which Aya draws next makes her face twitch. “Oh, my. The universe didn’t want you to win today.” She taunts and shows the card. “I activate ‘Fire Formation - Tenki’ to the field, using its effect to search ‘Lunalight Tiger.’”

 ‘NICE! Now she has everything she needed for the Lunalight combo! Plus three, here we go!’

 “HERE IT IS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! AYA’S ABOUT TO SHOW THE CSG HOW THIS IS DONE!”

 Aya nods and starts. “I activate ‘Lunalight Tiger’ to my pendulum zone, scale set!”

 A pillar of light appears next to Aya and a furry creature raises in it, with a 5 showing below.

 'It took Aya about two day until she could do this, and that's not even pendulum summoning.'

 “I activate Tiger’s pendulum effect! With it, I revive ‘Lunalight Yellow Marten.’ Now! I overlay my two copies of ‘Lunalight Yellow Marten!’ XYZ Summon!”

 ‘… What is she doing?’

 The two fox-tailed beasts raise into a dark XYZ vortex, much more sinister than a normal one.

 “Arise! In defense position, Outer Entity Nyarla!”

 With the screams of millions of tortured souls, an eldritch abomination exits the vortex. Its form reminds of an octopus, but the many mouths quickly dispel that notion.

 ‘Why is she going for that and not Force Strix? It would make sense if she was scared because of Nibiru, but I think she already special summoned too much… Strange, but this deck can handle misplays, that’s why I built it for her.’

 “Using Outer Entity Nyarla’s effect, I discard 'Orcust Knightmare' from my hand and using it's other effect I send the two Yellow Martens serving as overlay units to the grave and attach ‘World Legacy - World Wand.’ This triggers one of Yellow Marten’s effect, adding ‘Lunalight Serenade Dance’ to my hand. NOW! I build the overlay network using Nyarla, to bring forth an even more powerful being from hell! XYZ SUMMON!”

 The mass of tentacles rises to the dark vortex, returning with a blood-curdling scream that makes half the audience cover their ears.

 ‘Not gonna lie, I feel kinda silly for bringing these cute cat girl adornments to this duel… Sounds like the entrance to hell is opening up in the middle of the arena… Well, thank god for her nickname.’

 “SHOW EVERYONE WATCHING WHAT THE QUEEN OF HELL HAS TO OFFER! Let the CSG feel your wrath!”

 “So be it! EMERGE! ‘Outer Entity Azathot!’” Aya yells with her arm raised, making the vortex break with the sound of glass shattering from the portal. An enormous island of flesh floats into the black, serving as shade from the sun for most of the arena.

 Anna stays quiet through this. I'm guessing she has the analytical mind to see this was mostly a waste of resources. ‘Not that it matters now. Aya still has enough options in the grave, not to mention the Orcust engine.’

 Speaking of the Orcust engine, Aya’s next move uses it. “Now that your card effects are useless, I will banish Orcust Knightmare in the grave, targeting bigfoot and sending ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’ to the GY.” The cryptid becomes a tad taller presenting the 300 ATK increase. “Now I activate Orcust Harp Horror, banishing it to special summon another copy of Orcust Knightmare. But before you get too excited, I’ll use Orcust Knightmare and Danger Tsuchinoko for link arrows. Link Summon! Appear, ‘Galatea, The Orcust Automaton!’”

 With the flash of a link circuit connecting, the pale human framed automaton appears next to Aya, Eying its bigger brother, Dingirsu opposite of it.

 “By banishing ‘Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’, I activate its effect, special summoning Orcust Knightmare to the field. Then I’ll activate Galatea’s effect, returning Harp Horror to the deck and setting 'Orcust Crescendo'. Finally, I build the overlay network using Galatea. XYZ Summon! Appear, ‘Dingirsu, The Orcust of The Evening Star!’”

 “It’s a mirror match everyone!” I say the obvious over the intercom. “This duel won’t be determined by simply who’s got the best deck, or who could afford the better cards. BUT BY SKILL ALONE!” That’s a tremendous lie and I know it, but for the normies watching, that’s what this looks like.

 Unfortunately, the vacuum between the stands and our platform inhibits me from hearing how the crowd is reacting, but from the looks of it, they’re cheering for this. Guess that worked.

 Concerning Aya’s play, well… ‘Misplay central there, the proper line would be Bigfoot or Azathot and Galatea into a link-3 or even the three for a link-4 and then Skeleton for Galatea into Dingirsu. Still, this works here.’

 Following my announcement, a tremendous foghorn sounds around the arena, signaling the arrival of yet another giant. The skyscraper sized behemoth exits through a hole in space like its counterpart and stands menacingly opposite of it.

 “The on-summon effect of Dingirsu activates, it will send your Phantom Knights to the graveyard. Hope you weren’t hoping to use that, Anna.” Aya taunts.

 Raising its massive spear, Dingirsu points to the ethereal knight and shots a beam of energy, which disintegrates it before it has time to react.

 Anna responds by narrowing her eyes and saying. “Guess she taught you, huh? Ok, I’ll admit, this will be tougher than I expected. Maybe even a challenge…” She trails off and a dangerous smile grows on her face.

 Aya puffs her chest, proud to ear that and says. “I’ll show you then. Battle!”

 The banner denoting the start of the battle phase appears outside of the destroyed dome’s boundaries, and our platform moves to into the red barrier, way closer than any of the previous duels, leaving us right above the spectator stands. We’re so close some even try to jump up here, but another blue barrier prevents them… Nothing we can do about them looking up through the transparent platform though…

 I mute my mic and sigh. “Thank god we wore bloomers today.”

 Haruna takes a step forward, casually places a hand on my back and reassures. “Well, upskirts are a trademark career hazard for us. There will be photos of your panties on the net whether you like it or not.”

 “Stop it Haruna.” Naeko interrupts. “She didn’t mean it in that way Yuumi, it’s true that it’s something we have to worry about more than others, but that’s not a guarantee.”

 Nodding, I turn back to the duel. While I was talking with Haruna, Aya declared an attack, Dingirsu against the zero ATK Ash Blossom.

 “Go Dingirsu! Charge!” Aya ordered her monster.

 It does what it’s told, charging at the small fairy floating around defenselessly. The spear hits, ripping through the creature and sending a massive cloud of blue projection particles at Anna.

 She braces herself, putting a foot back and crossing her arms in front of her. The particles arrive, opening cuts on her arms and legs, and sending her back with a shockwave. “ARRRHH!!!!” she grunts, but remains steady.

 Anna draws deep breaths and taunts. “Ahhh! Huff! Argg, you fucker! Just wait and I’ll show you what true pain feels like! I will use Dingirsu’s effect to negate Ash Blossoms’ destruction!”

 The blue shards stop moving, and then reverse direction, forming the same monster which was just destroyed.

 With a calm, resting expression, Aya responds. “Then show me! I set a card face down and end my turn end!”

[ 

 End of combat

 NWDA LP: 8000

 CSG LP: 5400

]

 As soon as the platform returns to its original position, I look around the field. Anna has Dingirsu, Orcust Knightmare and ash. While Aya has Dingirsu, a defense position Danger Bigfoot, Orcust Knightmare and Outer entity Azathot… There is a lot of wasted potential there, but I wouldn’t say she is at a disadvantage. But that all depends on the next few turns. The opening moves have been made, now the true fight begins.