"It doesn't matter what card you play next, Yugi." Kaiba says confidently. "You have nothing that can withstand the phenomenal attack strength of my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. You might as well give up."

"Kaiba's got a point, he's got the upper hand and he knows it bceause nothing can stand up to that Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and it can wipe out the rest of Yugi's life points with one breath." Rainbow says. "All he's doing now is waiting for Yugi to back down. I can't see how Yugi could possibly pull this one out!" However, that changes when Yami Yugi starts laughing at the card he drew.

"Kaiba...I just drew the card that will defend me against your Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon." Yami Yugi says with a smile.

"Impossible." Kaiba retorts.

"Watch and learn." Yami Yugi says confidently as he retracts his Duel Disc. "This is it. The beginning of your defeat. Kuriboh...in attack mode!" Everyone in shocked when they hear and see Yami Yugi's choice, due to Kuriboh's reputation.

"That's ridiculous." Kaiba says. "In the entire game of Duel Monsters, Kuriboh is the weakest monster."

"He's right. That little puffball is a level one, 300 attack point wimp." Rainbow says in agreement. "What's he thinking?"

"Yugi, you're free to concede and forfeit the match. But come on...don't embarrass yourself by playing that runt of a monster." Kaiba says with a chuckle. "You must know that's the puniest monster with the lowest attack points in all of Duel Monsters. I've never known a serious duelist to even keep one in their deck. Yugi, don't insult my intelligence pretending that miserable creature can defend against the unbridled might of my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon."

"Kaiba, you're mistaken." Yami Yugi says at last. "This card will defend everything I have riding on this duel. And, before this duel's over, your dragon will fall!"

"My ultimate dragon? Nonsense." Kaiba retorts. "Hurry up and finish your turn so I can knock the stuffing out of your Kuriboh and win the game."

"As you wish!" Yami Yugi responds as he activates a magic card. "My last card of the turn will be the magic card, Multiply! Multiply works with only Kuriboh, and multiplies it endlessly." Right on cue, one Kuriboh turns into an army. "More than you bargained for, eh, Kaiba?"

"So, is this some kind of a joke?" Kaiba asks.

"The joke's on you, Kaiba." Yami Yugi answers with a chuckle. "You were likely thinking that when you attack, I'd have only one defender, but now I have many. And I'm getting more and more defenders by the second."

"No matter." Kaiba retorts. "Have you forgotten the incredible assault power my dragon possesses? It'll burn them to a crisp. Neutron Blast!" The three-headed Blue-Eyes attacks and destroys a good amount of Kuriboh. "So there!" However, the Kuriboh wall regenerates with more Kuriboh being created to replace the destroyed ones, and Kaiba can't believe it. "But wait, what's going on here? My dragon's attack had no effect on your life points at all, and those annoying creatures continue to multiply."

"That's right." Yami Yugi confirms. "You can't take my remaining life points away, Kaiba, until you wipe out all the Kuriboh. But as quickly as you destroy them, they multiply right back."

"Hairballs!" Kaiba says frustrated. "For each one I destroy, two more take it's place."

"Just like the Hydra in Greek mythology!" Twilight points out. "That makes Yugi's life points invulnerable!"

"That's right." Yami Yugi confirms. "Kaiba, you may have created the ultimate attack monster, but I've created the ultimate defense--an ever expanding army of furry protectors. They may not look like much, but they've stopped your dragon in its tracks. That's just the beginning. For now, I go on the attack!"

"You've nothing strong enough." Kaiba says.

"Watch me, for I'm going to show you the combo that will bring your dragon down." Yami Yugi responds as he reveals the cards to play said combo. "Mammoth Graveyard, Polymerization, and the Living Arrow card."

"What's a Living Arrow card?" Kaiba asks.

"Living Arrow allows me to use my other cards in combination not with my own cards but with my opponent's." Yami Yugi explains. "I'll show you. Normally, I'd make a fusion monster with my own monsters, but, for a new twist, Living Arrow lets me fuse my cards with your cards, opening up bold new possibilities." Soon, the Mammoth Graveyard appears and charges.

"Now what?" Kaiba asks.

"I can use the magical power of the Living Arrow to bond my Mammoth Graveyard via Polymerization to the heart of your beast!" Yami Yugi answers. In no time, the Mammoth Graveyard's head appear out of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's body.

"No, my dragon!" Kaiba says in shock. "What have you done?!"

"Since my Mammoth Graveyard is part zombie monster, he can't properly fuse with your living Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon." Yami Yugi explains. "Instead, it causes your monster to rot and decay...from the inside out. Each turn, your ultimate dragon will lose attack points, until your creature is no more. Your so-called ultimate dragon--and your victory--is rotting away, Kaiba. It's only a matter of time, now. And there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"There must be something I can do to save my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon." Kaiba says in frantic worry.

"My Mammoth Graveyard has an attack strength of 1200. That means that each turn that goes by, he drains 1200 points from your Ultimate Dragon's attack power." Yami Yugi responds. "Soon it will be weak enough for me to destroy." Kaiba knows he's right, because his dragon is getting weaker with each passing turn, and there's nothing in his deck that can reverse it. Right on cue, the monster starts to show signs of rotting and decaying as its attack power drops to 3300, to the delight of the spectators.

"I can't believe it! Just one combination move, and Yugi's back from the brink of defeat!" Twilight says in astonishment.

"It's all over for Kaiba, he's got no chance to win this!" Applejack concurs. Twilight, Fluttershy and Tea are amazed that Yugi managed to somehow find a way to overcome his opponent. As for Bandit Keith, he's equally surprised as he never thought he'd live to see the day that Seto Kaiba was outfoxed, admitting that Yugi is good, adding that he's both intense and there's something about him that brings out that intensity, something that wouldn't let him lose.

"I guess what they said about two heads, or three heads, being better than one isn't working for Kaiba in this case." Spike says.

"I can't lose. The fate of Mokuba's soul rides on this game." Kaiba says, determined. Fluttershy, being the gentle, quiet and listening one, manages to catch that and wonders if Pegasus did to Mokuba what he did to Yugi's grandpa. "Attack now, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Neutron Blast!" However, the attack fails again because the Kuriboh wall regenerates.

"Again?" Yami Yugi asks as the attack fails. "When will you learn? The Kuriboh multiply faster than you can eliminate them with your Neutron Blasts." And right on cue, the Kuriboh multiply.

"No, I will not, cannot be defeated." Kaiba says with more determination than before, with a hint of defiance.

"I'll draw one more card and let my Mammoth Graveyard finish my turn." Yami Yugi says as he draws, and as soon as he does, the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon loses 1200 more points, dropping its attack power down to 2100. Kaiba knows that if this keeps up, Yugi will be able to destroy his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon outright, further stating that the only hope he has is to keep trying.

"Go, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Neutron Blast!" Kaiba says at last. However, the Kuriboh wall regenerates again, to his horror.

"Once again your attack has failed, Kaiba." Yami Yugi says. "My defense holds. And you have no other strategy to use against me. Your time is running out. You should never have challenged me, Kaiba. You see? My Mammoth Graveyard takes another 1200 points from your dragon." Right on cue, the dragon's attack strength falls to 900. "Even my weakest monsters can destroy it now." In his head, Kaiba imagines his younger self trying to save Mokuba from getting swallowed up by the rotting body of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and failing, just as he realizes he failed to beat Yugi, again, and failed to save his brother's soul, and then he imagines himself rotting away like the dragon. Back on the battlefield, Yugi and the other spectators notice Kaiba out of sorts, not even trying to make a move or speaking.

"Why's Kaiba just standing there?" Rarity asks.

"Maybe it finally sunk in that he's lost this duel." Rainbow answers. But Fluttershy knows the truth.

"You're right, but it's always hard to see a duelist taking a loss so hard." Twilight concurs. As for Keith, he thinks that Yugi's gonna beat Kaiba and take his world championship title. "We'll take that silence as a pass on this turn, Kaiba." Yugi agrees, knowing that any monster in his deck can take down the weakened Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon now. And the monster he draws, is the Celtic Guardian.

"This is it, Kaiba! Prepare to meet your demise!" Yami Yugi shouts at last as said monster appears within the Kuriboh wall. "Celtic Guardian, attack Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" The mighty warrior leaps and comes down with a slash, taking off one of the dragon's rotting heads, lowering Kaiba's life points down to 400 and bringing Yugi closer to victory, and the spectators know it.

"Man, one more attack like that, and Kaiba loses, because each of those heads represents on separate Blue-Eyes!" Spike says in joy. "Since it's a fusion of three, just taking out two heads will mean Yugi wins!"

"In short, Kaiba's toast!" Rainbow adds.

"Yugi...it can't end this way. If I don't defeat you in this duel, Pegasus will keep Mokuba prisoner...forever." Kaiba says. This strikes Fluttershy as she realizes what she thought before was right, confirming that Pegasus did steal his soul. "I can't let that happen, and even though I don't have a card that can keep you from attacking, I think I still have a strategy that will stop you in your tracks."

"What do you mean?" Yami Yugi asks.

"I'm going to force your hand, and win this battle, Yugi." Kaiba answers as he backs up, puzzling everyone.

"Looks more like he's retreating to me." Joey says as Kaiba backs up, all the way to the edge of the wall.

"Is this some kind of trick?" Applejack asks as Kaiba stands precariously on the edge.

"Kaiba! Stop this!" Yami Yugi protests.

"What's Kaiba doing?" Rainbow asks. "Does he really think this cheap stunt's gonna keep Yugi from winning?"

"It's your move, Yugi." Kaiba says at last. "You can attack my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon again and wipe out my remaining life points, but if you do, the resulting shockwaves might cause me to lose my balance and send me down to the rocks below me."

"Don't tempt me!" Yami Yugi says, hoping he'll talk some sense into Kaiba.

"My fate is completely in your hands, Yugi." Kaiba says. "You'll decide this duel, one way or another. Of course, if you don't surrender, I might end up being seriously hurt, or worse, killed. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Stop it, Kaiba! You know this is dangerous!" Tea shouts.

"Kaiba's probably bluffing. Now get off that ledge and play fair!" Rainbow shouts. "You know that Yugi doesn't want to hurt you!"

"He knows, he's just counting on Yugi to surrender." Rarity suggests.

"Surrender?" Pinkie asks in shock. "But he can't, not after everything we've been through! And he'll lose his only way into the castle!" Up in the tower, Bandit Keith laughs.

"Looks like Kaiba'll do anything to come out ahead, just like me." Keith says.

"I'm warning you, Kaiba. Don't push me too far." Yami Yugi says aloud. "I must win to rescue my grandfather's soul from Pegasus."

"And I must win this duel to rescue Mokuba's soul." Kaiba responds. "The difference is I'm willing to risk anything, even my own wellbeing, to do it. You know, I can stand up here all day, Yugi. And I'm certain you won't make any attack for feat that you might knock me off this ledge. Even though you know by not attacking, you give up the only chance you have to save your grandpa. Which means I have the advantage over you. For in my case, there's nothing holding me back." Kaiba proceeds to draw. "Ah, a magic card. Monster Reborn, which I will use to resurrect the Blue-Eyes head that was just chopped off by your Guardian."

"What? Restore a head of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon?" Yami Yugi asks in surprise as said head appears from the rotting body of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

"Now one of my Blue-Eyes with its normal attack power of 3000 has just been reborn." Kaiba says. "With all of your Kuribohs in defense mode, I couldn't touch you, but now that you've put a monster in attack mode on the field, I can take out the rest of your life points. Which I'll do next turn. Two of the Blue-Eyes Ulimate Dragon's heads are still weakened, but the third can wipe out your guardian in a breath. Our life points are equal, Yugi. Strike now, if you dare. Otherwise, next turn, I swear I'll take you down." Yugi realizes that he'll win if he takes down one of the weakened Blue-Eyes heads, he'll win, but wonders if the battle will accidentally knock Kaiba off the ledge and down to the rocks below. "Surrender, Yugi. That is unless you have the courage to unleash your attack!" Yami knows he must in order to win, but Yugi just can't bring himself to do it. but Yami tells him that they must in order to rescue Yugi's grandpa's soul. Yugi tells him it's not right, wondering if there's another way, but Yami tells him there isn't another way as the thought of Yugi's grandpa's soul comes into their minds. Fluttershy and Tea notice Yami Yugi's expression, looking like both him and the Yugi she knows can't agree on what the right thing to do is. But Yami breaks the silence.

"Kaiba, I've never backed away, and I'm not starting now!" Yami shouts. "Celtic Guardian, attack!" As the guardian charges, Fluttershy runs out in front of the Cletic Guardian, hoping to stop it from attacking, even though it was just a hologram, and she knew it.

"Fluttershy, don't!" Twilight shouts.

"You'll get hurt!" Tea calls out, but Fluttershy keeps running until she blocks the rest of the way.

"Yugi, please! You can't do it!" Fluttershy shouts. "You can't take this risk! Call the monster off! This isn't the Yugi we know! You'll kill Kaiba if you go through with this!" Right at that moment, Yugi regains control of his body, sending Yami back into the puzzle.

"She's right! We can't do this! STOP!!!!" At that moment, the Celtic Guardian stops running, as if it knows what Yugi was going through and realizing the peril Kaiba would've been in if he went through with the attack as Tea runs over to check on Yugi.

"Couldn't do it, huh?" Kaiba asks. "Understandable. Mokuba wouldn't have wanted me to do it if you were in my position, anyway. White Lightning Attack!" With one breath, the Celtic Guardian is destroyed and Yugi, for the first time, loses a duel, and none of the others can believe it.

"I can't believe it! That underhanded sneak wiped out Yugi!" Joey says in shock.

"Forget about who beat him, the fact that Yugi lost alone is shocking enough!" Rainbow says as Yugi starts crying while on his knees, trembling. Meanwhile, Kemo tells Pegasus what happened.

"Master Pegasus, just now the battle between Yugi and Kaiba was decided. Seto Kaiba was the victor." Kemo says.

"Thank you, Kemo." Pegasus responds.

"Shall I allow Seto Kaiba to enter the castle then, sir?" Kemo asks.

"Yes. A deal is a deal." Pegasus answers.

"Done. Right away." Kemo responds as Pegasus looks at Mokuba's soul card as well as three other cards.

"Good job, Kaiba boy." Pegasus says. "As you wished, I will be your next opponent. But little Yugi didn't fare nearly so well in this rematch between the two of you. I could sense it. His spirit is broken. And his grandfather's soul remains mine." Up on the roof, Yugi is still in tears over what happened.

"Are you okay?" Pinkie asks.

"What's going on here?" Keith asks. "That punk Yugi could've won the game, but he threw it away to Kaiba to save his skin from falling over the edge. Whoever heard of a duelist doing that?" At that moment, everyone runs over to Yugi.

"Take it easy. It was just one loss." Rainbow says, trying to cheer Yugi up.

"There'll be other duels, darling." Rarity adds.

"I almost couldn't control it--this other presence inside my Millennium Puzzle and deep inside my head. He was willing to go all the way against Kaiba!" Yugi says at last.

"Another presence?" Joey asks, baffled. "You mean, there's two of you?"

"What the heck are you talking about, buddy?" Tristan asks.

"I think it's like what happened to me, and Twilight knows it." Bakura says.

"He's right. Like Bakura, Yugi has some sort of spirit, possibly from ancient Egypt, inside him." Twilight explained. "But while Bakura's was evil through and through, and Bakura couldn't control it, Yugi managed to control his until Kaiba did what he did near the end of the duel. And like Yugi said, it comes from within his Millennium Item, his Puzzle, just like Bakura's came from his Millennium Ring."

"I'm afraid this spirit inside my Puzzle and my mind will make the same attempt again." Yugi says. "So I guess to stop it, I'LL NEVER DUEL AGAIN!" Those words bring a look of shock into the eyes of Twilight and her friends.

"He said WHAT?!?" Rainbow asks in shock.

"He didn't just say that, did he?" Pinkie asks, hoping that she was just hearing things.

"Our friend just threw away his favorite thing to do in the world?" Applejack asks, equally surprised as Fluttershy kneels own in front of her traumatized friend.

"I'm sorry, about your grandpa...but you did the right thing." Fluttershy says. "You couldn't hurt another duelist or any other kind of person, not even to save someone you care about." Yugi then looks up at her. "He wouldn't want to be saved that way."

"Then I guess his morality stays intact." Kaiba says at last. "But then again, Mokuba wouldn't want me to do the same if I were in Yugi's position and if Mokuba was in yours. If Yugi had done what needed to be done, he'd be entering that castle, not me. But his morality kicked in, preventing him to follow through on his play."

"He spared your life, you insensitive jerk!" Fluttershy snaps "If you hadn't stood up there and made Yugi choose between his grandpa's soul and saving you from dying, he would've gone in to save both his grandpa's soul and your little brother's!" Everyone was shocked to see Fluttershy snap like this. "Yugi showed you something that you never show anyone but your little brother, compassion! And that's more than you deserve!"

"This wasn't a contest of who had the most compassion, Fluttershy, it was a contest to see who would go through with what had to be done to save the one they love." Kaiba says coldly. "And Yugi's morality caused him to lose the game and give up Duel Monsters."

"YOU MONSTER!!!" Fluttershy yelled, so loud that even Pegasus could hear it. "He may have lost one lousy game of Duel Monsters, but he didn't lose his heart like you did, Seto Kaiba! You've spent so much time around machines that you've forgotten what being human is like!"

"You know NOTHING about me!" Kaiba retorts.

"Oh yeah? Well, unlike you, Yugi has friends that will stand by him to the end, regardless of whether he wins or loses at any game." Fluttershy says with her hand on her heart. "And what do you have, Seto? What do you have at the end of the day?! ANSWER ME THAT!!"

"What do I have?" Kaiba asks. "What I need to save the only family I have left! Unlike you or your friends, Mokuba is the only relative I have left in my family. Ever since we were orphaned after our parents died, we've had just each other. And now that I have all that I need to get him back, I'll see to it that we're never separated by anyone ever again." Fluttershy stood her ground, despite feeling sorry for Kaiba after hearing him say his and Mokuba's story. Kaiba then proceeded to walk away.

"This wouldn't have happened if you never barged into the Kame Game Shop and forced Yugi's grandpa to duel you for his Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Twilight shouts, completely enraged. But Kaiba keeps walking.

"You can fool yourself all you want, Kaiba, but Yugi's twice the man that you'll ever be!" Applejack shouts.

"Well, that was a fun way to spend the morning." Keith says as he leaves. Meanwhile, Kaiba is at the main entrance to the castle where he puts his ten star chips to unlock the door.

"Your ten star chips qualify you to enter the inner sanctum." Kemo says as the door opens. Kaiba is glad that he finally entered, and he knows he's ready to face Pegasus once and for all as he walks in.

Author's Note

More card effect mess-ups courtesy of the anime. The actual counterpart to the Living Arrow, the Spell Shattering Arrow, allows you to destroy as many magic cards that your opponent controls, and if so, they lose 500 life points for each. The Living Arrow, however, can transfer the effect of a magic card you have to your opponent's monster. Hence the fusion of Mammoth Graveyard and Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. As for Multiply, normally it only creates two Kuriboh tokens from one normal Kuriboh rather than a whole wall of them.