#436 - Fossils and Ancient Machinery

The duel officially begins, with Hikari Amagi's first turn.

He glanced at the cards in his hand.

"I summon Ancient Gear Hound in defense mode."

"Woof!" A mechanical dog appeared on the field.

Ancient Gear Hound, Level 3, Earth Attribute, Machine Type, Defense Power 1000.

"Eh—"

"Ancient Gear Hound..."

Many people's expressions turned slightly unpleasant upon seeing this monster.

After all, they knew that the Fusion Dimension's invasion of the X Dimension was spearheaded by Ancient Gear Hounds.

"Oh! An Ancient Gear monster?" Jim looked puzzled for a moment upon seeing this monster, then suddenly realized, "First, you demonstrated the diversity of fusion, then the concentrated power of fusion.

Now, you're starting to use Ancient Gear monsters?"

He lightly flicked his cowboy hat with his finger.

"I heard that Principal Chronos de Medici of this school is an Ancient Gear master, one of the legendary duelists, and you are his most prized student. I see, if it's you, you'd definitely want to use Ancient Gear cards in this final duel watched by the whole world."

Hikari Amagi chuckled, not answering, but his meaning was clear.

You're right.

"Oh! I thought Hikari had more to show!"

"Big brother, even for Amagi, it's impossible to show more in such a high-intensity duel, right..."

"Mamma mia... Hikari..." Professor Chronos, watching the broadcast with the other teachers at Duel Academy, was already biting his handkerchief, his eyes brimming with tears.

Hikari Amagi didn't respond to Jim, but continued with the effect.

"Ancient Gear Hound's monster effect activates when this card is summoned, inflicting 600 points of damage to the opponent."

The hound howled, the sonic wave impacting Jim, causing him to take a half-step back.

Jim, LP: 4000 → 3400.

"Then, Ancient Gear Hound's effect, once per turn, during my Main Phase: I can fusion summon 1 Ancient Gear monster by using monsters from my hand or field as fusion material.

I fuse the Ancient Gear Hound on the field and the Ancient Gear Soldier in my hand—

Come forth, Ancient Gear Golem!"

Clang clang bang bang, a mechanical golem holding multiple hand cannons slowly appeared on the field.

Ancient Gear Golem, Level 8, Earth Attribute, Machine Type, Defense Power 1800.

Jim's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this monster, seemingly "surprised".

"Ancient Gear Golem's effect, once per turn, during the Main Phase: Inflict 1000 points of damage to the opponent!"

The cannons slowly rotated, aiming at Jim, and several beams of light shot out, further reducing Jim's life points.

Jim, LP: 3400 → 2400.

"Wow, he dealt a total of 1600 damage in the first turn."

"Not only that, but he also defended while dealing damage!"

"A perfect turn."

Hikari Amagi faintly heard the audience's discussions.

It felt strangely familiar, like something someone said when Jim dueled the Supreme King.

"I set one card face-down and end my turn."

"A truly perfect first turn, defense, damage, set card, no wonder Judai praises you so highly as a Fusion Duelist." Jim smiled, "However, since you don't want to show the new [possibilities] of fusion, then let me perform!"

"My turn, draw—" Jim looked at the card he drew.

Is it not…

"Then, I activate the magic card, Miracle Dig!" Jim activated a card with a rather ominous name with a smile, "Send 1 Level 4 or lower Rock-Type monster from the deck to the graveyard!

I send Flint Craggle from the deck to the graveyard!"

A giant pickaxe appeared in front of him, and he raised the pickaxe and slammed it into the rock in front of him. Then, a Fossil Dragon suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Just like Ancient Gear monsters are super machines made by ancient civilizations, in the distant past, there once lived some powerful beings, and after the ravages of time, they became [fossils]!

And now, I will use [fossils] to fuse!"

He took out a card with a swoosh: "Magic Card, Fossil Fusion!"

"Banish the fusion materials listed on a [Fossil] Fusion Monster Card from either your own or your opponent's graveyard, and fusion summon that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck!"

"Wow, it's using both graveyards?"

"Graveyard fusion, and it uses both graveyards?"

Rumble rumble rumble—

On Jim's field, a giant fossil slab slowly stood up, and on Hikari Amagi's field, a rusty mechanical soldier slowly stood up.

"I banish Flint Craggle from my graveyard and the Ancient Gear Soldier from your graveyard to fusion summon!

Fossil Warrior Skull Knight!"

Rumble rumble rumble, a fossil skeleton holding a spear appeared on the field with a swoosh.

Fossil Warrior Skull Knight, Level 4, Earth Attribute, Rock Type, Attack Power 2000.

"Fusion between fossils…"

"Fusion is truly diverse."

Hikari Amagi's emotions didn't fluctuate much as he looked at this monster.

After all, he already knew that Jim's deck was a new, "evolved" deck.

"Activate the magic card, Time Stream!"

Jim held up a card, showing its power: "This card allows Neo monsters to reverse-evolve into the Mesozoic Era!"

"Ah?" "What do you mean?"

"Ha—" Hikari explained with a smile, "Simply put, it's evolving a Fusion Monster into a higher-level Fusion Monster!"

"That's right!" Jim grinned, "As expected of you, Hikari, you really do know. So, the effect of Time Stream is to target 1 [Fossil] Fusion Monster on your field. Release that monster, and Special Summon 1 Fossil Fusion Monster from the Extra Deck whose original Level is 2 higher than that monster as a Fossil Fusion!"

"Come forth, Mesozoic Fossil Machine Skull Wagon!"

The armor on the skeleton knight slowly aged, and as the bones on its body crumbled, its skeleton combined to form a bizarre-shaped train.

Mesozoic Fossil Machine Skull Wagon, Level 6, Earth Attribute, Rock Type, Attack Power 1700.

"Not yet, the effect of Skull Knight in the graveyard is to banish it from the graveyard and add 1 [Time Stream] from the deck to my hand!" Jim confidently opened his graveyard, took out the monster, and showed its effect.

"Wow—"

"Does that mean?"

A group of people exclaimed.

Reverse-evolve again!

Evolving the Mesozoic Fossil Monster to an even more ancient past!

"That's right! Activate the magic card, Time Stream! Let the Mesozoic Fossil Machine return to the Paleozoic Era and reverse-evolve!"

"Fossil Fusion Summon!"

"Ancient Inventions from the Paleozoic Era!"

"Skull BONE-digger!!"

Boom—

The small wagon slowly aged, slowly grew larger, and after a moment, it was replaced by a bizarre-shaped giant truck made of dinosaur bones.

Paleozoic Fossil Machine Skull BONE-digger, Level 8, Earth Attribute, Rock Type, Attack Power 2100.

Hikari Amagi raised an eyebrow slightly.

I must say, this monster is really powerful in this environment.

But what he found even more interesting was the card "Time Stream"—he certainly had this card himself, but he remembered what happened in the original work.

In the original work, Jim's Time Stream required paying half of his life points to activate, and it was only strengthened to its current form after K Company made it an OCG card.

"The effect of Skull Wagon in the graveyard is to banish it from the graveyard and target 1 magic/trap card on the field to destroy that card!"

A fossil wagon buzzed, honking its horn, rose from the graveyard, drove past Hikari Amagi, and took away his set card.

"炼装 Fusion? I haven't seen you use it before." Jim looked at the card, and although he saw the card name, he didn't see the full effect of the card.

"Then, enter the battle phase. Skull BONE-digger attacks YOU, Ancient Gear Golem!"

The Skull BONE-digger buzzed and drove up to the Ancient Gear Golem, opened its giant truck, loaded the Golem in, and then crushed it into powder with a bang.

"When Skull BONE-digger destroys an opponent's monster in battle: Inflict 1000 points of damage to the opponent!"

Then, the BONE-digger turned around and lightly swept past Hikari Amagi.

Hikari Amagi LP: 4000→3000.

"The effect of Ancient Gear Golem is that when this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard: Special Summon 1 [Ancient Gear] monster from the deck, ignoring summoning conditions."

"I special summon Ancient Gear Giant in defense position!"

Rumble rumble—

The golem's powder turned into a signal, and in the distance, a mechanical giant stretched out its mechanical arm, grabbed the BONE-digger, and came directly to the field.

Ancient Gear Giant, Level 8, Earth Attribute, Machine Type, Defense Power 3000.

"Eh, why is it in defense position?"

"Yeah, isn't the Ancient Gear Giant's attack power comparable to Blue-Eyes White Dragon's!"

As if guessing what his friends and the audience were thinking, Hikari said, "Jim, your Skull BONE-digger should have an effect that reduces the defense power of the opponent's monsters to the attack power, right?

Ancient Gear Giant's defense power is 3000. If you reduce the attack power, the 3000 attack power will become 0."

"Ha, that's right." Jim nodded, "As expected of Hikari Amagi, who pursues the ultimate fusion—by the way, the BONE-digger can attack monsters 3 times per turn. If you were in attack position, you would have lost."

While saying this, Jim had to admit in his heart.

Hikari Amagi is indeed an all-around fusion user, not only understanding and using fusion himself, but also understanding duels, and even understanding his opponent's duels and fusion.

No wonder Judai treats him as a close friend.

However, since he has come to this arena, his goal is the championship, and he will not be afraid of his opponent's strength.

Rather, it is precisely because of this that he is even more excited.

"Set one card face-down and end my turn."