The Duel began with Hikaru's first turn.
He glanced at his opening hand. "I Normal Summon [Ancient Gear Hunting Hound] in Defense Position."
A chanical dog dropped onto the field with a tallic woof.
[Ancient Gear Hunting Hound] — Level 3 | Earth | Machine | 1000 ATK / 1000 DEF
"Ancient Gear Hunting Hound."
Faces around the arena tightened at the sight.
After all, when Academia invaded the Xyz Dinsion, their vanguard units were often Ancient Gear Hounds.
"Oh? Ancient Gears, huh?" Jim "Crocodile" Cook narrowed his eyes, puzzled at first and then understanding. "First you showed Fusion's variety, then its concentrated power, and now you're bringing out Ancient Gear monsters?"
He tipped the brim of his hat. "I've heard that Professor Crowler, acting principal at Duel Academy, is an Ancient Gear specialist. You're his star pupil, aren't you? I get it. If it's you, you'd want to use Ancient Gear cards in a finals Duel broadcast to the world."
Hikaru only chuckled, offering no reply, because Jim had it right.
"Ohhh, so that's it. I thought Hikaru had sothing even bigger in reserve," a spectator sighed.
"Big bro, even Hikaru wouldn't overextend in a high-intensity Duel, right…?"
"Mamma mia… Hikaru…" At Duel Academy, Professor Crowler was already biting a handkerchief as he watched the feed with the other teachers, eyes brimming.
Hikaru turned back to the field. "Hunting Hound's effect, when it's Normal Summoned, you take 600 damage."
The hound let out a tallic howl. A shockwave rippled across the arena; Jim staggered half a step.
Jim — LP: 4000 → 3400
"Once per turn, during my Main Phase, Hunting Hound lets Fusion Summon an 'Ancient Gear' Fusion Monster using monsters from my hand or field." He raised a card. "I fuse the Hunting Hound on my field with [Ancient Gear Soldier] in my hand, appear, [Ancient Gear Howitzer]!"
A squat, riveted cannon-golem clanked onto the field, barrels rotating as steam hissed from its vents.
[Ancient Gear Howitzer] — Level 8 | EARTH | Machine | 1000 ATK / 1800 DEF
Jim's eyes narrowed, feigning surprise. He'd seen this play coming.
"Howitzer's effect, during my Main Phase, inflict 1000 damage to you."
The main barrel locked on. Beads of light spat across the field and exploded at Jim's feet.
Jim — LP: 3400 → 2400
"Sixteen hundred damage on turn one."
"And on top of that, he set up a wall!"
"A perfect opener."
Hikaru caught the murmur of the crowd. The cadence reminded him of sothing people had said during Jim's Duel with the Overlord.
"I Set one card," Hikaru said, sliding a card into his back row. "Turn end."
"A neat first turn, defense, burn, and a Set," Jim said with an easy smile. "Exactly the sort of Fusion duelist Jaden praised. But if you're not going to show Fusion's new possibilities yet… then I will."
"My turn," Jim drew, then paused. "Hah."
"I activate the Spell Card [Miracle Rupture]! Send 1 Level 4 or lower Rock monster from my Deck to the GY." He flipped a card from his Deck into the Graveyard slot. "I send [Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo] to the GY!"
A giant pickaxe shimred into existence before Jim "Crocodile" Cook. He lifted it and struck the stone, cracks spidered out, and from the rock face a fossilized dinosaur erged in a cascade of dust.
"Just as Ancient Gears are super-Machines built by lost civilizations," Jim said, "there were once other mighty beings in the distant past. Ti wore them down into Fossils… and now I'll use those Fossils to Fusion Summon!"
He snapped a card forward. "Spell Card-Fossil Fusion!"
"Fusion Summon 1 'Fossil' Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck by banishing the Fusion Materials listed on it from any Graveyards. If you banished monsters from both GYs, the summoned monster can't be targeted by monster effects."
A massive fossil slab rose on Jim's field. Across from it, a rusted Ancient Gear Soldier stirred in Hikaru's GY.
"I banish Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo from my GY and your Ancient Gear Soldier from your GY, Fossil Fusion!" Jim declared. "Appear, Fossil Warrior Skull Bone!"
Bone plates clattered together, forming a lean, spear-wielding skeleton that vaulted onto the field.
[Fossil Warrior Skull Bone] — Level 4 | EARTH | Rock | 2000 ATK / 800 DEF.
"Fusing with Fossils, huh…"
"Fusion really is diverse."
Hikaru studied the monster without much change in expression. He already knew Jim's deck had "evolved."
"I activate the Spell Ti Stream!" Jim raised the card. "This de-evolves my 'Fossil' monsters, sending them further back in ti!"
"Huh?"
"What does that even an?"
Hikaru chuckled. "Put simply: you trade up, you Tribute a Fossil Fusion to Special Summon another whose original Level is 2 higher, as if with Fossil Fusion."
"Exactly," Jim said. "Ti Stream targets a 'Fossil' Fusion Monster I control, Tribute it, then Special Summon a 'Fossil' Fusion with an original Level 2 higher, treating it as a Fossil Fusion Summon!"
"Ti flow-reverse! Return to the sozoic! Fossil Machine Skull Wagon!"
The Skeleton Warrior's fra rusted and reassembled; bones shed into a bizarre, skeletal railcar that screeched onto the field.
[Fossil Machine Skull Wagon] — Level 6 | EARTH | Rock | 1700 ATK.
"It's not over," Jim continued. "In the GY, Skull Bone's effect, banish it to add Ti Stream from my Deck to my hand!"
He flipped through his Deck, slid out a card, and showed it to the crowd.
"Whoa."
"Don't tell he's going to do it again…"
"Right again!" Jim grinned. "I activate Ti Stream once more! sozoic to Paleozoic, de-evolve!"
The small wagon groaned and aged before everyone's eyes, its bony fra bulking out until it beca a colossal truck seemingly assembled from dinosaur remains.
"Fossil Machine Skull Convoy!" Jim's monster roared onto the field.
[Fossil Machine Skull Convoy] — Level 8 | EARTH | Rock | 2100 ATK / 1800 DEF.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
'Powerful, in this taga, very powerful.'
What interested him more, though, was Ti Stream. He ran a thumb along his Duel Disk, recalling the original depiction, Jim having to pay half his Life Points to activate it, before the OCG printed a strengthened version.
Jim didn't give him long to reminisce. "In the GY, Fossil Machine Skull Wagon! I banish it to target a Spell/Trap on the field and destroy it!"
A horn blared from the Graveyard. The skeletal railcar surged up, thundered past Hikaru, and clipped his Set card cleanly off the field.
"talfoes Fusion? Haven't seen you use that." Jim glanced at the Spell before it slid into Hikaru's GY.
"Battle Phase," Jim called. "Skull Convoy, run it down, attack Ancient Gear Howitzer!"
The bone truck slamd into the squat cannon-golem. Steel shrieked. Howitzer broke apart under the impact, then its core flared.
A hulking machine strode out of the dust and seized the fossil truck with a massive arm as it landed.
"Skull Convoy's effect, when it destroys a monster by battle, it inflicts 1000 points of damage!" Jim added as the truck's exhaust howled past the sideline.
Amagi Hikaru — LP: 4000 → 3000.
"When Howitzer is destroyed by battle and sent to the GY: I can Special Summon 1 'Ancient Gear' monster from my Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions." Hikaru snapped a card from his Deck and thrust it onto the Disk.
"I Special Summon Ancient Gear Golem, in Defense Position!"
[Ancient Gear Golem] — Level 8 | EARTH | Machine | 3000 ATK / 3000 DEF.
"Why Defense Position?"
Amagi Hikaru answered calmly:
"Jim, your Skull Truck, Fossil Machine Skull Convoy, has an effect that lowers the opponent's monsters' ATK by their original DEF, right? Ancient Gear Golem has 3000 DEF. If I brought it out in Attack Position, its 3000 ATK would drop to 0."
Jim nodded, a wry smile tugging at his mouth. "As expected of you, Hikaru, the duelist who pushes Fusion to its limit. And just so the crowd knows, Skull Convoy can make up to three attacks on monsters each Battle Phase. If your Golem had been in Attack Position, you'd have lost on the spot."
Even as he spoke, Jim conceded sothing to himself. Hikaru wasn't just a master of his own Fusions. He read the flow of a Duel, and even his opponent's Fusion lines, with the sa precision. No wonder Jaden called him a close friend.
But Jim hadn't co here to be overawed. He'd co for the championship. And facing strength like this only made his blood run hotter.
"I Set one card," he said, sliding it into his back row, "and end my turn."
...
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