“Swords of Revealing Light. I see you appreciate the classics, Phil.” Bastion said approvingly from where he stood. “I imagine it will give time for your insect to grow and become a threat to my water dragon. Still, it’s been many years since Yugi Muto first put the card to good use, and there are many more ways to remove it from the field. I draw!”

Bastion smiled ruefully, shaking his head after merely glancing at the new card in his hand. “A pity, it looks like you’ll have another turn. I place one card face down, and I end my turn.”

Interesting. Phil cocked his head and drew a card. He’s got 700 life points to my 1700, but as of right now his board presence is a fucking problem. A 3k beatstick is no joke, and it’ll take me a hot minute to get anything out to match. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem with swords up on my field, but if he draws a Heavy Storm or a Mystical Space Typhoon I’m flat out dead. Well, guess that’s a problem for future Phil.

“Alright! In my standby phase, Ultimate Insect LV1’s effect activates! Since this little fella managed to survive your big fuck-off dragon for a turn, he gets sent to the graveyard in order to evolve! Come! Ultimate Insect LV3 (1400/900)!”

A slightly larger form of the previous insect slithered out onto the field, this time with a set of larger pincers on its mouth and multiple red eye markings littering the sides of its body. Bastion raised his eyebrow, immediately noticing its effect on his Water Dragon. “I see. So its one of those utility monsters that focuses on lowering the attack of my own monsters in order to compensate for a lower attack stat.”

Phil nodded, both players watching as Water Dragon’s attack went from the 3000 it was boosted to by Umi, down to 2700.

“Yup. Since my Ultimate Insect was summoned correctly by its predecessor, as long as its on the field your monsters will lose 300 attack. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work. Now, though I dislike having to do this, I switch my Mystic Swordsman LV6 to defense position and end my turn.”

“Very well.” Bastion drew a card and considered the field. So Phil has two monsters, no face downs, and a Swords of Revealing Light with two turns left until it disappears. His insect will, if it follows the previous example set by the LV1 version, level up to five next turn, and then seven after that, perhaps even ten. Quite unsustainable with only my Water Dragon to defend my 700 life points with. So that means I must force the situation around to destroy his insect. Luckily…

“Phil! Prepare yourself! I activate my face down card, Dust Tornado! It allows me to destroy one spell or trap on the field, and I choose your Swords of Revealing Light. Then, Dust Tornado allows me to set one spell or trap card from my hand face down on the field, which I will do. Now, even though I wouldn’t mind seeing how powerful your Ultimate Insect can really get, I simply cannot afford to let it stay on the field. Water Dragon, destroy his Ultimate Insect LV3!”

Phil sighed and shrugged his shoulders, doing nothing as his insect was obliterated by a high-pressured jet of water and his life points were reduced to 400. “Damn my man, you found the out to the problem.” Then he laughed, the sound clear and joyous. “But, you know, with a dick-measuring contest this good, I can’t simply bow out yet! If that’s the end of your turn, I draw! Come’on! Baby needs a new pair of shoes!”

At the side of the duel ring, Ms. Hibiki held her head in exasperation, unnoticed by the duelists and the spectators who were caught up in the energy of the duel. In front of her, a grading rubric was steadily being marked off, and off to the side in the margins there was a steady increase of tally marks that were not clearly associated with any of the fields on the paper.

“Alright, I don’t mind that draw at all! I set two cards face down, and I end my turn!”

The cautious move of Phil’s set off another round of muffled conversation between the spectators in the stands, along with some more careful consideration in Bastion’s head. Two face downs and a defender with 1600 defense. I… yeah I should be cautious as well. A perfectly timed Mirror Force or at this point, just about any decent battle trap could spell the end for either of us. And yet, a complete lack of aggression until I draw some trap destruction doesn’t sit well with me either. With how much his deck seems to thrive on the theory of going from weak to strong, if I give Phil a breather for even a turn it could become complicated again. Yet, I have no way to finish him this turn unless I make a reckless move…

“I summon the Mathematician (1500/500) in defense position, and use his effect to send my Duoterion from my deck to my graveyard. A short man with an extraordinarily long, white beard sprung onto the field, waving a wand with eyes on its tip defensively as it searched the field for threats. “Then, Water Dragon will declare an attack on your Mystic Swordsman.”

The swordsman in white and blue clothes that Phil had so painstakingly brought out was torn apart with a groan of agony as the liquid dragon blasted through his 1700 defense points. But, instead of looking concerned at losing his last defending monster, Bastion was shocked to see that a laid-back grin had slid across the boy’s face again.

“Nice! Nice! ‘Ery noice!” Phil exclaimed, and as the last droplets of the Water Dragon’s attack faded he flipped over one of his two face down cards. “But, since you just put all my hard work to shame, I’ll do the same to yours. I activate my trap card, Call Of The Haunted! Its target, my Ultimate Insect LV3!”

The insect covered in strange, red eyes took the field once more, and as Bastion ended his turn, the monster began to shake. The shaking intensified while Phil drew a card, until finally the monster let out a horrifying screech of pain and a new form bursted out of its old body. Where there had once been eyes lining the sides of its body, there was now a sleek, curved exoskeleton that was supported by four spindly legs that almost looked like blades jammed into the ground. The Water Dragon on Bastion’s side of the field wilted once more as Ultimate Insect LV5’s (2300/900) effect kicked in, reducing its attack from 3000 to 2500.

Bastion’s eyes shot open as he took in the sight and Phil passed his turn after setting one monster in face down defense position.

A 500 attack debuff. If there’s another form like I think there is that removes even more attack points, I cannot allow this game to continue any further. Bastion considered all of his options, but as the new card in his hand still left him with no way to deal with Phil’s face down card, he squared his shoulders resolutely. “Looks like this is it, one way or another, Phil. Show me if you have what it takes to deal with the answer to the formula I’ve been building all game. You thought my Water Dragon was my best card? Think again. I activate my trap card. Bonding – DHO! By shuffling one of each of my Duoterion, Hydrogeddon, and Oxygeddons from my hand or graveyard back into the deck, I reveal a monster of the likes you have never seen before, one that has the ultimate chemistry with my deck! I summon Water Dragon Cluster (2800/2600)! Now, due to my Umi field spell, I have two monsters with 3000 attack on the board. And I’m not done yet! Water Dragon Cluster, activate your effect to change the attack points of all Phil’s monster to zero for the rest of this turn!”

If Phil had been drinking something, he would have spat it out in shock.

What.

The.

Fuck.

I know that card. I can deal with 3k attack no problem. But that… That card shouldn’t exist yet. Wasn’t it released after Pendulums and XYZ’s back on Earth?

The reveal of Bastion’s monster had set his heart racing at unprecedented speeds.

How the fuck did he get that card. I checked the catalogs before I came to the island. There shouldn’t be anything past the GX sets, and I even noticed that there were a few GX sets that hadn’t been officially printed yet. How did he get it? Was it random chance? Did I lose a card from my collection without noticing and he happened to pick it up? Or are there other people, like me, who have been in this world. But this is the first time I’ve seen other people use cards that shouldn’t exist yet. Otherwise, Jaden likely would’ve become unstoppable with all the generic hero support in the later card sets.

Phil shook his head to clear the thoughts of his that were racing at dangerous speeds, only barely noticing that Bastion had declared the start of the battle phase.

“Hold up!” Phil gasped. “At the start of the battle phase, I activate my last face down card. Threatening Roar! It prevents you from attacking for this one turn.” And it hopefully gets me some time to gather my thoughts. This is… I need to speak to Lumina about this. If it’s not only Bastion with new cards… If that’s the case, then I have no choice but to change things up, add a few modern support cards of my own.

Fucking hell.

Bastion passed his turn with an annoyed look, while Phil took a deep breath to steady himself as he started his own turn.

“I draw. In my standby phase, I activate my Ultimate Insect LV5’s effect.” Phil paused, and looked Bastion square in the eyes. “My man, this was fun. And, I’d love to hear more about your Water Dragon Cluster tonight or something. But, this is the end. Cast off your shell and become the ultimate life form you were always meant to be. Ultimate Insect LV7 (2600/1200), show yourself!”

Just like before, the body of Ultimate Insect LV5 split open with a sickening crunching noise to show the truly gigantic red and blue body of a new monster, who emerged from the shell of its former version with a horrifying scream similar to that of a kaiju ready to devastate a major population center.

“Since it was summoned by the effect of the LV5 version, its own continuous effect comes into play, forcing your monsters to lose 700 attack and defense. Then, I flip summon my Giant Rat (1400/1450) and activate my equip spell, United We Stand, from my hand to widen the gap even more by adding 800 attack points to my Ultimate Insect for each of my face up monsters (2600/1200 -> 4200/2800).” Phil explained. “Now, show the crowd the superiority of insects over dragons! Finish it!”

Bastion chuckled, nodding his head at Phil as his monster was destroyed and Bastion’s life points were reduced from 700 to a flat zero.

“Well fought, Phil. Well fought.”

“You too, dude.” Phil replied as the two duelists met in the center of the arena to firmly shake each other’s hands. “Say, that trick with the Water Dragons was hella cool, though. What do ya’ say, wanna get burgers and fries while we talk the duel out? I always find that going over it afterwards helps me spot my own mistakes.

“Sure, sur-“ Bastion gripped Phil’s hand in a solid handshake, and then gave a startled jump as Ms. Hibiki appeared in a flash behind Phil to grasp the boy’s shoulder.

“Well, that sounds quite nice, Mr. Jenson. However, perhaps a few hours of detention before that will serve to clean out your mouth, don’t you think?”

Bastion could only watch helplessly as Phil was physically dragged from the arena by Ms. Hibiki’s iron grip, the boy mutinously digging his heels into the ground in a futile attempt to make the process of getting him to detention more trouble than it was worth.

Even Bastion could tell that strategy was doomed to fail.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Two hours into Phil’s detention was when Lumina hit her limit, choosing to go back to Phil’s dorm room rather than sit by him to watch Phil stare at a blank wall. In a way, she could understand why his punishment had been that, as Ms. Hibiki had accurately guessed Phil’s difficulties in dealing with lack of interesting stimulation (aka, hours of boredom). So, the teacher hadn’t bothered making the boy write lines, choosing instead to sit him down in her office, facing a plain white wall while she silently took care of some paperwork. Lumina hadn’t the heart to watch Phil’s slow descent into insanity via boredom (and she was rather bored herself).

So, two hours into Phil’s detention and Lumina was laying on the extra bed, drinking some tea Lyla had sent her for her birthday a few centuries ago, and enjoying the fact that not even Phil could end up getting into even more trouble when he was under the close watch of that wonderful teacher.

Ah.

Bliss.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Back in Ms. Hibiki’s office, Phil stared at the plain, white wall that was beginning to haunt his waking nightmares from a new angle, carefully balanced upside down on his head. He took several deep breaths and contemplated that his most recent hypothesis was dead wrong.

The wall was no more interesting when he was right side up, or when he was upside down. He let himself fall off the chair with a thud, landing on his side to the tiresome reminder from Ms. Hibiki to “keep facing the wall, young man, until I’m satisfied that you can keep a clean mouth.”

He covertly glanced at the teacher, sighed, and then looked back at the wall. What could he even do? She had a good ten, maybe fifteen years on his own age, and even though she wasn’t exactly a bodybuilder, Ms. Hibiki was still almost twice his size and, as he found out about an hour into the detention, pretty damn good at both sprinting and long-distance running. So, until he was released from the hell that he had found himself in, Phil could do nothing but stare in agony at that the blank, white wall, devoid of even a single picture to break the monotony.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Like Phil, Chazz Princeton stared at a wall, though this one was the nicely decorated one in the common room for Obelisk Blue. He was alone, at the moment, but not even an hour ago Alexis and the few other Obelisk Blue students who had bothered to watch the match between Bastion and Phil had sat there discussing the duel. It was a curious match, to be sure. Chazz knew in his heart that he could defeat Phil handily, as his powerful dragon monsters would be more than enough to sweep through the tricks that the Ra Yellow student had pulled, but even he could admit that the sheer ease which Phil brought out level card after level card was somewhat impressive. It was almost like Phil assumed that his own strategies would fail, but through that failure all he would see was another potential combination of cards. Well, an any case the next day would be interesting indeed, as his own plans to test the ability of that Jaden kid were coming closer and closer to fruition. Perhaps after his victory there, it could prove interesting to test the strength of Phil for himself.