“Blah blah blah star chips blah get ten blah blah.”

  That was what Pegasus’s explanation of the rules sounded like to Phil’s ears. In truth, Phil had mostly tuned out the eccentric millionaire from the get-go, as soon as the man had appeared on the balcony situated above the front gates leading to the castle to do his little speech. It was simple – bet at least one star chip per duel, lose them all you get tossed out, get ten to enter the semi-finals, then beat the other three duelists to enter the finals. Anything else was just pointless fluff to make everyone feel good about themselves so they would ignore the sketchy stuff.

  Only Phil knew Pegasus didn't give much of a shit about the tournament. It was only a front to defeat Yugi in an in-person one-on-one game so he could take control of Kaiba Corp and get access to their solid vision technology. All this money, all this effort, it was solely to bring Yugi to center stage.

  The flamboyant man, wearing his usual red double-breasted suit, continued to prattle on, so Phil busied himself by looking around the surroundings. The castle was nice, far more impressive than the already pretty good art in the manga had made it originally look. It was made in a classical European style, set on top of what looked almost like a mountain with its top half cut off. A long zig-zagging staircase led from the forest floor to the gates, where Phil was now along with the other participants – 40 in total, ignoring the handful of stowaways, uninvited partygoers, and people who split their chips with their friends (cough cough Joey Wheeler cough cough).

  Most of them wouldn’t make it to the night. Even fewer would still be around by the following morning.

  “Phil!” Jean whispered in his ear. “Trash-can kid’s giving you a death glare at 2 o’clock.”

  Phil glanced his way. True to Jean’s word, Weevil Underwood had his full focus right on him. Boy, if looks could kill, Phil would be dead twenty times over. Without bothering to hide the action from the island security, the other duelists, or even Pegasus, Phil cheerily raised his middle finger to flip the cockroach off, causing Weevil’s face to turn an ugly shade of purplish-red.

  “I do hope you will find my battle boxes useful… a duelist would be wise to heed their location. Now! My duelists! Your 48 hours shall begin! May the strongest of you crawl through the fields of battle to face me inside my castle!”

  The crowd of duelists let out a fearsome cry, but Phil had already turned his back to start the long walk down the mountain. Location… that was correct. In Duelist Kingdom, each battle box started with a pre-activated field spell depending on where they were located. For example, a battle box near the sea would have the field spell 'Umi' activated from the start, giving a water-based duelist an attack and defense buff while putting a machine or pyro duelist on the slight back foot. A smart duelist would take the surrounding terrain into consideration and make their moves accordingly.

  Of course, in the manga and anime that went a bit further, seeing as in those mediums, the game was more of 'D&D with cards' up until the start of Battle City. Here, that was not the case, at least so far. Phil wasn't worried about water monsters being able to hide themselves under the sea like what Mako did in his duel against Yugi. It all boiled down to Lumina's hypothesis that his own presence was slightly warping the rules of this world to be partially in line with the canon rules and partially in line with Earth's rules. No D&D with cards, but similarly, the life points were stuck at 4000 instead of his Earth's 8000. A nice medium between the original 2000 life points of Duelist Kingdom and the aforementioned 8000 of Earth.

  “He’s still watching you… and following us.” Jean kept up the running commentary, seemingly highly amused that Phil had managed to pick up such a focused nemesis so early on in the tournament.

  “I bet he’ll challenge me at the first battle box we see.” Phil casually replied.

  “Forest, then?”

  Phil nodded and then shrugged. “That would fit his deck. If my suspicions are correct, it would give insects an attack and defense boost.”

  By now Phil, Jean, and Lumina were separated from the group. Yugi had already been challenged by a duelist neither of them recognized, having only made it halfway toward Weevil before being stopped right in his tracks. Phil could already hear the words ‘divergence from canon’ blaring like a klaxon alarm in his head. Would it matter if Phil took his duel with Weevil? Joey wouldn’t be able to get Weevil’s dueling gauntlet after the battle if that happened. Yugi looked helplessly at Phil and then at Weevil.

  Well, it was too late anyway. Phil had a feeling Weevil would outright refuse to put their duel on pause no matter how much Yugi wanted to duel him, and knowing Atem, he could probably still maneuver his new opponent into betting his glove anyway through putting his deck on the line or something. Those two guys were resourceful.

  “YO! GOOD LUCK! SEE YA IN A FEW!” Phil shouted out to Yugi and Joey as he left. They both raised a hand in acknowledgement.

  The murmurs of the crowd gradually faded, leaving only the footsteps of Phil, Jean, and Weevil to be heard. The clack of shoes against stone transitioned to the crunch of grass underfoot and cicadas in the air. Only a scant number of duelists entered the forest. The vast majority of them had instead headed toward the open plains, with another large chunk making tracks toward a small group of mountains in the distance.

  It made sense. Sogen would be the field spell for the plains, which would boost the always popular warrior decks, and dragon decks, which would benefit from the Mountain field spell, were a close second in popularity only by the fact that their cards were a hell of a lot harder to get due to their on average higher attack points.

  “YOU!” Weevil’s voice echoed against the trees. Phil half-turned to see the green-jacketed boy pointing right at him with a wrathful expression.

  And then Phil continued to turn, as if he was confused about who Weevil was talking to.

  “Tall and scraggy, yes you! Your opponent is me!”

  Phil made a mock look of understanding dawn on his face as he continued to be a total asshole to the cunt who chucked his friend’s cards in the ocean.

  “Me? Whatever could be the reason?”

  “You! Don’t play dumb! You stuffed me in the trash can, you and that idiot foreigner friend of yours! There’s a battle box over there. Face me there, or be a coward forever!”

  Phil looked over to the battle box in question. It was partially hidden by a group of trees, but it was certainly there. The terrain suggested the obvious - a forest box.

  "You got it boss." Phil shrugged, following Weevil over to the battle box. Weevil let out a few evil chuckles as they walked.

  “Look, no electrodes this time.” Phil cheekily pointed out to Jean.

  “No fried nuts.” Jean sagely agreed.

  “No one likes fried nuts.” Phil finished.

  Weevil entered the box to take his seat, with Phil doing the same. However, as Weevil gave his deck a quick shuffle, Phil brushed aside one side of his jacket to look through his options. The Red Lotus deck was out for now. Variety was the spice of life and he’d already used it against Yugi. The big boy deck was reserved for if shit hit the fan, no need to wear out its welcome this early. The funny bird deck was still unfinished since the main big dragon it needed was, by no surprise, insanely fucking hard to find. Any alternatives to that specific card were damn close in rarity.

  Weevil placed his deck down on the playing table. Phil looked up to see him staring impatiently. Then he glanced across the field. Well… if Weevil was so excited about a field spell advantage…

  His decision made, Phil yoinked a deck out of the holder underneath his jacket to slap on the field.

  “How many chips?” Phil asked.

  “Two!”

  Phil raised an eyebrow. Two right off the bat, when no duelist had more than that and losing all of your star chips meant being kicked off the island. This was not something Phil would have ever suggested for a low-stakes duel like this, but whatever.

  "Sure." He placed the two chips on his end of the table as casually as could be. Phil didn't intend to lose here, but even if he did, it wouldn't be the end. Sure, he'd be out of chips, but if he and Jean could evade the island security long enough for the night to set in and the player killers to come out and play, they could mug one of them for their chips and their glove to get back in the tournament with no one else the wiser.

  Yup. To Phil, player killers were nothing but walking star chip dispensaries. It was a pity he had no realistic way to get Weevil to bet his glove on the match’s outcome, like how Yugi had in the manga. Phil’s deck wouldn’t be of interest to the bug duelist, and staking his life on the outcome was pointless when Weevil wouldn’t believe him. Nor did Phil want to throw him into a shadow duel. Weevil may be a dick, but even he didn’t deserve that.

  Phil: 4000 Weevil: 4000

  “I’ll go first!” Weevil snapped out, drawing his starting hand and then an additional card at the beginning of his turn. Phil lightly shrugged. His deck was better going second anyway.

  “I summon Sangan (1000/600) in defense mode and place one card face-down! Turn end!”

  Phil raised another eyebrow. It was the first turn of the duel and already Weevil had surprised him. To see Sangan in the deck of a duelist who favored insects… was this mere happenstance, or another change his own presence caused? If his memory was correct, Weevil played a ‘Great Moth’ deck during Duelist Kingdom. Was that still the case, or would it be something different now?

  “Draw.” Phil never let the easy smile leave his face. The only way to know for sure was to see what roach-boy searched up with the Sangan. “Mother Grizzly (1400/1000), attack mode. Destroy the Sangan.”

  Phil watched closely as the black-furred grizzly bear tore through a clump of trees to rend the little brown-haired ball of fluff, Sangan, into shreds.

  "Ha! You fool! Sangan may have died, but its effect lives on! When it's destroyed I can add one monster with 1500 or fewer attack points from my deck to my hand! Come to me, Cocoon of Evolution (0/2000)!”

  Great Moth turbo confirmed. A.K.A., a deck solely built to summon a dogshit boss monster with an absolutely idiotic summoning condition. Somehow, Phil felt this was perfectly right with the world.

  “Turn end.” Phil simply said, making no move to set any face-downs or summon any other monsters alongside Mother Grizzly.

  At this, Weevil’s face turned cruel and self-assured. Beginning his turn, Weevil practically tore the top card off of his deck to move into his main phase with gusto.

  “You fool! You should not have provoked me so! First I'll take your chips, and then I'll get you and your foreigner friend kicked off the island! I summon Witch of the Black Forest (1100/1200) and flip over my face-down trap, the continuous trap card DNA Surgery! This trap will turn every monster on the field into the insect type!"

  Witch of the Black Forest (1100/1200 -> 1300/1400), Mother Grizzly (1400/1000 -> 1600/1200).

  Phil sat back to wait, his hands placed neatly on the table as he watched both of the monsters on the field gain slightly insectoid features, looking even more at home within the pre-activated Forest field spell.

  “Now, don’t get too comfortable,” Weevil sniggered, “That does power up your monster, of course, but that means little to me! Now that my Witch is an insect monster, I can use it as fuel for my Multiplication of Ants spell card! By tributing the insect-type Witch of the Black Forest, I can summon two Army Ant Tokens (500/1200 -> 700/1400) in defense mode. That will cause the effect of the Witch of the Black Forest to activate, allowing me to add one monster with 1500 or fewer defense points from my deck to my hand! To my side, my contingency plan! Howling Insect (1200/1300)!”

  Phil nodded along. Two shitty tokens plus one of the four keys needed for the Great Moth strategy. Now all Weevil needed was to find Petit Moth, make it survive for 4-6 consecutive turns on the field, and to get one of the two big boy moth forms in his hand, either Great Moth or Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth. The first was shit. The second was still shit, but hey, at least it had more attack points than a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, with the trade-off of being nearly impossible to summon against anyone with half a brain.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “That’s not it!” Weevil declared, slapping another spell card down on the field. “Insect Imitation! By tributing one of my level four Army Ant Tokens, I can special summon one insect monster from my deck with a level that’s one higher than the token! Tremble before its might, the Ultimate Insect LV5 (2300/900 -> 2500/1100)!”

  Phil sat bolt upright. A smile was still spread across his face, but it was no longer easygoing. It was a smile that oozed excitement.

  “Ultimate Insect LV5! Hot damn boy that brings me the fuck back! Holy shit I can’t believe you’re running the GOAT! The MVP! Wait, do you have LV7? Why are you still running the Great Moth strat? Just pivot your deck to focus on Ultimate Insect! It’s an actually decent card!”

  Frankly if Weevil had made his introduction with that instead of chucking Yugi’s Exodia in the ocean, Phil might have even liked the guy.

  Weevil was taken aback. “You… know about my moth? No… of course you know. I’m the Japanese National Duel Monsters Champion! Anyone would do their research about me.” He coughed into his fist, full of pride that Phil had researched his strategies beforehand.

  “Well, whatever. You may have foreseen my Great Moth’s inevitable arrival, but did you foresee this? I activate the spell card Last Will! Because a monster was sent from my side of the field to the graveyard this turn, I can special summon one monster with 1500 or fewer attack points from my deck. The symbol of your doom, Petit Moth (300/200 -> 500/400), in defense mode!”

  Taking its place next to a dark green ant and a strange bug covered in blade-like appendages, Petit Moth looked like a run-of-the-mill caterpillar. Yet, even as Weevil activated the effect of Cocoon of Evolution from his hand, equipping it to the moth to change the moth’s stats to the statline of Cocoon’s, Phil could see what it would eventually become in his mind’s eye. One big murder moth, made fresh to order.

  Petit Moth (500/400 -> 200/2200).

  Strangely, for all his thoughts about that strategy, Weevil was doing a decent enough job putting it into play. Shitting out a bunch of monsters, starting the clock on the moth evolution, pulling out the middle Ultimate Insect form to force Phil to focus on it instead of instantly killing the moth, searching Howling Insect off of the Witch so he wasn’t completely hosed even if Phil cleared the board. It was… almost impressive. Phil could tell Jean was of the same mind, for the Frenchman had straightened his posture slightly from where he was inside the box behind Phil, leaning casually against the glass wall.

  "My battle phase begins," Weevil said, an evil look in his eyes. "Ultimate Insect LV5, destroy that bear!”

  Phil: 3100 Weevil: 4000

  It was over in a heartbeat. The bladed legs of the insect tore through Mother Grizzly’s hide like tissue paper, but even as the damage was subtracted from Phil’s life points, Mother Grizzly’s effect was activated.

  "Well, you don't have any other attack position monsters, so allow me to say these words! Weevil, you done fucked up! Mother Grizzly allows me to summon one water monster with 1500 or fewer attack points from my deck. Come on out, Star Boy (550/500)!”

  A smiling one-eyed starfish popped out on the field from the scattered gore of Mother Grizzly’s torn-up corpse, but Phil wasn’t quite done yet.

  “He’s insect-type because of your DNA Surgery, so that adds 200 attack and defense to his statline. Then, Star Boy’s effect kicks in! While he’s on the field, all water monsters gain 500 attack points!”

  Star Boy (550/500 -> 1250/700).

  “That’s still a pathetic number.” Weevil sneered before passing his turn to Phil.

  “Sure,” Phil said, drawing a card, “Don’t worry about it. My boy’s trying his best. Instead, worry about this! Weevil, you shit for brains, you thought bringing me out to this Forest box would give you a good advantage. Well first, you negated that advantage by pulling the DNA Surgery trick. And second, Forest? Seriously?” Phil paused for a second to put on his best Australian accent. “That’s not a field spell. This, this is a field spell! I activate A Legendary Ocean!”

  Half of the forested field was instantly flooded with holographic water that looked like it was mere seconds away from spilling onto the floor. Underneath the water, swarms of tiny fishes, no more than a millimeter or two long, swam in schools amid countless sunken buildings, towers, walls, and aqueducts. Its generation spurred a faint feeling of interest in Phil’s mind. Forest was still there, right at the same time as A Legendary Ocean. Would Forest continue to stick around if Weevil played a field spell of his own? Did it count as a field spell owned by the battle box itself? Curious.

  “Unlike the Forest field spell, which boosts the stats of three different types of monsters, A Legendary Ocean boosts the attack and defense of all water monsters on the field! In addition, it also reduces the levels of all water monsters in our hands and on the field by one star. Oh, and it’s always treated as ‘Umi’ if that matters.”

  Star Boy (1250/700 -> 1450/900).

  Weevil’s face paled. He knew as well as Phil what that meant. Not only would Phil’s water monsters gain the boosts from both field spells, but any level five water monsters in Phil’s hand could now be summoned without requiring a tribute, as they would be changed to level four due to the field spell’s effect.

  Phil shook his head and clicked his tongue. “So greedy, so eager to use DNA Surgery to get that search off of Witch without even thinking that I might be running an attribute-based field spell as my main strategy. The Japanese National Duel Monsters Champion? Ha! More like the Japanese National Duel Monsters Chumpion!” Phil laughed long and loudly, the sound nearly, but not completely, managing to drown out the sounds of Lumina making vomiting noises in the corner of the battle box in response to Phil’s horrendous insult.

  Weevil’s face turned a nasty shade of dark purple, but Phil went further into his turn without commenting on it. “Well, might as well take advantage of this! You don’t see one without the other, the field spell without the monster! Come on out, the now-level-four, insect-type, water-attribute Terrorking Salmon (2400/1000 -> 3300/1400)!

  “But! That…” Weevil began to stutter out.

  “Beats over your Ultimate Insect LV5? You got it, big dawg. Terrorking Salmon, time for a nice insect brunch! Fuck you, eat shit, and fall off your horse, Weevil!”

  Amidst confused cries of ‘I don’t have a horse!’, Phil’s giant reddish-brown fanged salmon toree into the blade-like Ultimate Insect like it was a starving man being treated to a five-star all-you-can-eat buffet, one of those buffets that’s way too expensive for its type of fare, has waiters handing out free crab rangoons every five minutes, and gives you food poisoning three hours later.

  Phil: 3100 Weevil: 3200

  “That’s all she wrote.” Phil smugly said as he ended his turn. Weevil drew a card, this time making the move in a much more subdued manner. Mentally, Phil made the tally in his head. This was the second of Weevil’s turns on the timer for Petit Moth. Once this turn ended, there would be two more turns to go at minimum.

  “I summon Howling Insect (1200/1300 -> 1400/1500) in defense mode and place one card face-down! Turn end!”

  "Draw." Phil flicked his eyes across the board. Howling Insect would summon an insect monster with 1500 or fewer attack points to the field when it died. Petit Moth was just a ticking timer, and the remaining Army Ant Token was of limited use since it had low attack and couldn't be used for a tribute summon. He grunted. The best target to focus on was still Petit Moth.

  “I’ll summon another Mother Grizzly (1400/1000 -> 2300/1400). Terrorking, destroy Petit Moth!”

  “Not so fast!” Weevil sneered, his face finally becoming more of its normal color again. “My trap card activates!”

  Phil rolled his eyes. It couldn’t be Mirror Force, could it? That would be such a shit sandwich, walking into it the one time he’d forgotten to prepare for it.

  “Widespread Ruin!”

  He internally sighed in relief. Much better.

  “This trap card destroys your monster with the highest attack points! Say goodbye to your fish!” Weevil crowed.

  “Buh-bye.” Phil said as he sent his poor fishie into the great beyond. “Fine then, Mother Grizzly, go ahead and destroy that last Army Ant Token for me, would ya’?”

  There was little point in killing the Howling Insect at this point, not when Phil didn’t have the resources to immediately deal with whatever Weevil brought out with its effect.

  “Three turns!” Weevil bragged. “But it looks like you might not make it that far. You shouldn’t have been so reckless with your strongest monster, because here’s a powerhouse of my own! I summon Arsenal Bug (2000/2000 -> 2200/2200)!”

  Phil merely nodded. The sword-and-shield-wielding beetle was a big monster, but it had no protection, and its stats would drop down to 1000 points each if it was the only insect monster on Weevil’s side of the field. Not like that mattered much, but it was an odd caveat.

  “Arsenal Bug, destroy Star Boy!”

  Phil: 2350 Weevil: 3200

  Mother Grizzly (2300/1400 -> 1800/1400).

  Phil drew a card to start his turn. He looked at Weevil’s hand, which was pretty small after the teen’s lengthy combo near the start of the duel. Starting on Weevil’s next turn, Great Moth could be summoned if it was drawn. Knowing how his luck usually ended up, Weevil probably already had it in his hand. Therefore…

  “I’ll do this!” Phil announced. “I set a monster in face-down defense position, switch Mother Grizzly to defense, and end my turn!”

  “Coward.” Weevil laughed uproariously. “To come this far just to go on the defensive. My fourth turn begins! By sacrificing Petit Moth on the fourth turn after equipping it with Cocoon of Evolution, I call forth the king of insects from my hand! Stronger than any dragon, more fearsome than any warrior! Destroy my enemies, Great Moth (2600/2500 -> 2800/2700)!”

  Though Phil had long looked down at that card for being shit, he still couldn’t help but be impressed with how fucking huge the giant green moth was compared to the holograms of the other monsters. It alone took up a full quarter of the field. Everything else was like an ant compared to it.

  “Howling Insect goes to attack mode and attacks your face-down monster!”

  This time it was Phil’s turn to launch into a bout of maniacal laughter that went on for a full minute, far past what it really needed to so that he could fully drive the point in to Weevil that not only did he find the situation funny, but his laughter held the purpose to actively mock his opponent.

  “YOU FOOL! THE GREAT MOTH MAY BE STRONG, BUT PENGUINS ARE ETERNAL!” Phil shouted, flipping over his face-down monster to reveal an evil-looking penguin dressed in a tuxedo and a top hat. “Nightmare Penguin’s (900/1800 -> 1300/2200) effect activates! When it's flipped face-up, I can return one of your monsters to your hand!"

  Jean’s laughter joined with Phil’s as he instantly guessed what the target was going to be.

  “Get that Great Moth off of my field.” Phil made several shooing motions with his hands toward the boss monster. “Oh, you take some damage from that too since da penguin is thicc. Also while he stays on the field, all my water monsters gain 200 attack points. You really should have attacked with Great Moth first. Or at least cleared by Grizzly before chasing my face-down.”

  Nightmare Penguin (1300/2200 -> 1500/2200), Mother Grizzly (1800/1400 -> 2000/1400).

  Phil: 2350 Weevil: 2400

  “Shut up!” Weevil spat back at him. “Arsenal Bug, attack the bear!”

  “Which activates her effect,” Phil cheekily reminded him as he sent Mother Grizzly to the graveyard. “I can do this all day. Waiter, waiter, give me another Star Boy (550/500 -> 1650/900) in attack mode please!”

  Nightmare Penguin (1500/2200 -> 2000/2200).

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  Jean could hardly hold in his laughter. Phil was in his element, being a complete and utter ass to his opponent while also heavily entertaining his audience of one person, a duel spirit, a few people trying to sneakily watch from behind the trees, and some lady in a suit with a ‘Security’ badge pinned to her chest. His brother was tearing the insect duelist apart piece by piece without even bothering to go into an actual boss monster other than Terrorking Salmon, which was debatable if it was even a boss monster to begin with. This duel was pure Phil in his natural element.

  In addition, Jean could tell Phil wasn’t even being as much of an asshole as he could be. Half of his focus seemed to be on doing his legitimate best to follow Solomon Muto’s wishes in showcasing the water-based strategy of the deck, even when there were hardly any spectators.

  Ah, what fun. Jean could only hope to find a player killer soon so a glove could be ‘acquired’ and he could join in the fun.

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  “Draw card~!” Phil grinned. “And this is gg unless you have Kuriboh. Check this out! I summon Lekunga (1700/500 -> 2800/900) in attack mode. I’ll activate its effect to banish both of my water-attribute Mother Grizzlies from my graveyard to special summon one Lekunga Token (700/700 -> 1800/1100) in attack mode. Then, since I still have two more water-attributes in my grave, I’ll do it one more time to spawn in a second token because that effect ain’t restricted to once per turn.

  Phil's field was now full of monsters, five in total: the Nightmare Penguin, the Star Boy, Lekunga, and the two tokens. Meanwhile, all Weevil had left was the Arsenal Bug and his Howling Insect. Enough, perhaps, to weather the storm, if not for Phil revealing a spell card in his hand.

  “The second part of my super-special strategy, Fissure! It destroys the weakest monster on your side of the field, which also means the effect of Howling Insect can’t trigger because it needs to be destroyed specifically by battle.”

  Arsenal Bug (2200/2200 -> 1200/1200).

  Weevil turned as pale as a sheet. He knew as well as Phil did that Howling Insect was a powerful stalling tool, being one of the few ‘recruiter’ type monsters that could summon a monster of the specified type in defense position, instead of being forced to summon in attack position like the rest. If it had remained on the field, three attacks in total could have been blocked by a succession of Howling Insects before Weevil would have been forced to bring out something else. Even past the removal of Howling Insect, Arsenal Bug was affected as well. Now that it was the sole remaining insect monster on Weevil's field, its attack and defense were dropped down to a measly 1200 points with the Forest boost.

  It was a simple card, Fissure, but to Weevil, that lone spell card was like a gravestone slamming into the earth in front of him. A look of dawning horror was crossing his pale face. Even the briefest of glances at Phil’s side of the field were enough to tell the boy that not only was the duel over, but his Duelist Kingdom run was as well, for both of his two star chips were on the line.

  “I… no!” Weevil gasped out. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead. His eyes were frantically darting around, looking for something, anything that could save him from the precipice of defeat.

  Phil continued on heedless of Weevil’s fear. “Onward to war, my watery brethren! Lekunga destroys Arsenal Bug! Pengie, Star Boy, and both Lekunga Tokens attack directly!”

  There was no Kuriboh in Weevil’s hand.

  Phil: 2350 Weevil: 0

  Phil reached forward to sweep both of Weevil’s star chips into his waiting palm. The boy didn’t stop him. He was slumped over, his head in his hands from the shock of the rapid reversal of fortune. Phil sighed. If he really wanted to… he could probably take the kid’s glove. Weevil wouldn’t need it now that he was out of star chips. But… he just didn’t have the heart to. Not even to a kid like Weevil.

  "Look mate, I'm gonna be real with you for a bit. I trash-talked your skills during our duel, but you aren't a half-bad duelist. Fix your attitude, ditch the Great Moth strat, focus on the Ultimate Insect pipeline, and I think you can go pretty far. It just… ain’t gonna work if you keep pulling what you did on the boat.”

  Weevil did not respond, not even with a movement. Phil shook his head, turning to Jean.

  “You can lead a horse to water…” Jean began, staring at Weevil with a considering look in his eyes.

  “But you can’t make him drink. Well, water you gonna do?” Phil finished. Lumina threw over a look of pure and utter disgust toward him, but that did nothing to stir even the faintest feeling of pity in his stomach for telling such a horrid pun within her range of hearing.

  “Let’s bounce?” Jean asked. He jerked his head over to the door. “See what the others are up to?”

  “Let’s bounce. Weevil… anytime you want a rematch, I’m down for it. You can find me at Kame Game in Domino City.”

  With those words hanging in the air, Phil and Jean departed the battle box, leaving Weevil sitting alone, his head still resting in his hands.

  The battle box was silent.

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