"Worms?"
The two professors glanced at each other and saw only confusion in each other's eyes.
Crowler: You familiar with these?
Bonaparte: I have no idea, what happened to that 'basic quality of a professor' you just bragged about?
You couldn't really blame their knowledge base. As an archetype, Worms were quite rare in general. While a few Worm cards occasionally appeared in the meta, it was mostly as off-archetype tech because some of the singles were decent. Very few Duelists had a complete Worm deck.
Much less "Worm Zero," which was a top-rarity chase card. If not for having received it from a 'friend' in Domino, even Kira wouldn't have seen one.
But regardless, a twenty-five-material Fusion right off the bat was frightening. Even if they didn't recognize Worm Zero, any idiot could tell that something formed by fusing twenty-five monsters was not going to be mild-tempered.
"Well, this is a Battle Royale—no one can attack on the first turn." Kira said. "So I'll Set two cards and end my turn."
Crowler and Bonaparte exchanged a look and nodded.
"Then it's my turn again, none!"
Crowler declared in a loud voice.
"Draw!"
From the side, Bonaparte reminded him, "Take this seriously, Professor Crowler! Today isn't the day for us to fight each other—if we don't work together, we have no hope-de aru!"
"Quit yapping, I know!"
Crowler glanced at Kira's backrow Spell.
Whatever he was doing with Future Fusion, that Fusion Monster needed two turns before hitting the field. And in this Battle Royale structure, it took their side two full turns for Kira to get one.
In other words, by the time Kira's Standby Phase came around two turns later, that was still quite a ways off.
No need to worry about it just yet.
For now, the priority was to break through his defenses and end the Duel before that terrifying twenty-five-material Fusion appeared.
"Battle, none!" Crowler shouted. "Ancient Gear Golem, attack 'Worm Xex'!"
Kira: "I activate my Set card—"
"No you don't, none!" Crowler crowed. "While Ancient Gear Golem is attacking, your opponent cannot activate any Spell or Trap Cards!"
"I'm quite aware of that."
Kira smiled.
"But professor, I never said I was activating a Trap in response to the Golem's attack. I'm triggering it at the point when you declared Battle and entered the Battle Phase."
Crowler: "!"
Indeed, although Ancient Gear Golem prevented the activation of Traps during its attack, that restriction only applied from the declaration of its attack until the end of damage calculation. From the declaration of the Battle Phase until an attack was declared, it had no effect on free-timed traps.
"Therefore I activate my Set card, the Trap Card 'W Nebula Meteorite'!"
As Kira's trap flipped, everyone felt as though dark clouds suddenly gathered in the previously clear sky. Black clouds pressed heavily over the ground, rolling with thunder and lightning.
Within that vortex, a massive black object emerged. Like some harbinger of doomsday, it tore through the dark clouds, trailing a blazing tail of fire.
The meteorite slammed into the ground and exploded. The impact sent out a terrifying shockwave that kicked up waves of dust and debris, rising into the sky in a gigantic mushroom cloud.
"Mamma mia!" Crowler yelped. "Just like when the dinosaurs went extinct, none!"
"Hahaha, not that extreme." Kira chuckled. "The shock of W Nebula Meteorite's impact simply forces all face-down monsters on the field to flip into face-up Defense Position.
And right now, there's only one face-down monster on the field…"
He pointed to his own Set Worm.
"So 'Worm Yagan' is flipped face-up."
[Worm Yagan, DEF 1800]
"The effect of Worm Yagan: when this card is flipped, I target one face-up monster on my opponent's field and return it to the owner's hand."
Kira smiled.
"I return 'Ancient Gear Golem' to your hand.
If you activate a Trap before the attack declaration, even your Ancient Gears are powerless."
Sure enough, even mighty Ancient Gears had no answer to this kind of free-timed "underworld" trap. Letting out a howl of frustration, the Golem dissolved into a ball of golden light and shot back into Crowler's hand.
"What are you doing, Crowler!" Bonaparte snapped at his teammate's collapse. "Don't you always brag that Ancient Gears specialize in shutting down traps?"
Crowler's face flushed bright red. "Shut your mouth!"
He ground his teeth, muttering under his breath.
"Damn Bonaparte only ever has snark to offer…"
Fortunately, he'd at least not used his Normal Summon yet this turn.
"Then I Normal Summon 'Ancient Gear Soldier' in Defense Position and end my turn."
A soldier assembled from old mechanical parts appeared on the field. His left hand was a five-fingered metal hand, while his right had been refitted into a machine gun. He dropped into a crouched defensive stance.
[Ancient Gear Soldier, DEF 1300]
At least he'd avoided a complete blank turn. After all, under these rules, "teammates" didn't share fields.
And after so many years of open and hidden rivalry between Crowler and Bonaparte, Crowler knew better than to fully treat the man as a true ally. On paper, this Duel was their joint interview, and their interests seemed aligned, but Crowler was not naive enough to trust him.
If one of them was knocked out mid-Duel and the other won, what would the evaluation be? Would only the one who still had Life Points left get the job?
If he exhausted his resources and handed Bonaparte the victory, wouldn't he just be tailoring a wedding dress for someone else?
Given the choice between letting the other man "get ashore" while he played the role of stepping stone, Crowler would rather they both sank together. And he was sure Bonaparte thought exactly the same.
So while they looked like teammates, each one had his own plans.
"Then in the End Phase," Kira said, "the rest of W Nebula Meteorite's effect resolves."
Both professors tensed up.
There's more?
"During the End Phase of the turn it's activated, W Nebula Meteorite flips all LIGHT Reptile-Type monsters I control back into face-down Defense Position, and then I draw cards equal to the number of monsters flipped."
Kira pointed at his two Worms.
"So I flip both 'Worm Yagan' and 'Worm Xex' back to face-down Defense Position," he said. "Then I draw two cards from my Deck."
Crowler and Bonaparte exchanged looks, seeing only concern in each other's eyes.
Worm Yagan's flip effect, bouncing any monster on the field back to the hand, was disgustingly devious. Having it Set again felt like Kira had armed a time bomb on their field that could go off at any moment.
And that still wasn't the end of it.
"After that, I can also Special Summon one Level 7 or higher LIGHT Reptile-Type monster from my Deck."
Kira said calmly, revealing a card.
"From my Deck, I Special Summon this—
—Worm Victory descends!"