As the duel continues, Yami Marik begins his turn by summoning Dark Jalote, which has 1200 ATK points, and announces its special ability allows it to subtract 800 attack points from the monster it attacks. He chooses Joey's Iron Knight, and it's attack points go from 1800 to 1000. As Marik prepares to attack him, Joey activates Skull Dice. The die lands on 2, and Marik's monster's ATK points are reduced to 600. As Gearfried prepares to counterattack, everyone is shocked to see Gearfried's attack points lower to 500. Suddenly, Kaiba laughs and reveals that he has activated a magic card, Shrink, which lets him cut the attack points of one monster in half. Marik laughs and orders Dark Jalote to attack Joey's Iron Knight. It destroys it, and lowers Joey's LPs to 3200. Back on the ground, Tristan complains about Kaiba's stratigy, while Tea wonders what his other 2 face down cards could be. Mokuba just marvel's at his brother's timing and dueling skills. Back to the duel, Kaiba announces that all his enemys are valuble to him because they will help bring him to victory. This angers Joey, but Yugi tells him to relax.

Back on Battle Ship, Serenity is trying despratly to revive Mai. With Mai trapped in her hourglass-thingy, she can barely hear Serenity calling her name. Serenity tries to tell Mai to hang on, and that her brother is fighting to save her.

Now that it's Yugi's turn, he draws, and tries to decide what to do next. He sees Kaiba's 2 face down cards, and decides it's suicidal to attack him. He sees Yami Marik's monster in attack mode and no hidden cards. He then looks at Joey, with no monsters on his field but one card face down. He tries to decide who to attack. Down on the ground, Tristan says Yugi's targets will either be Kaiba or Marik since he wants to keep his promise to Joey and help him be a real duelist. Duke points out that Joey's anger is targeted towards Marik and that he may not care about Yugi anymore. Tea agrees that his target is Marik, and remembers a conversation between her and Joey back on Battle Ship sometime after Mai's duel. Joey was angry at Yami Marik for sending Mai's mind to the Shadow Realm, and told Tea to not tell Yugi about this. He said that he wants to duel Yugi and become a real duelist, but decided that if he can't save Mai, then he isn't qualified to duel Yugi. The two of them didn't know that Serenity was listening in on the conversation, though.

Back to the duel, Yugi decides to attack Yami Marik, and as he announces his attack, Joey tells him to stop the attack. Yugi wonders what he's doing. Joey then asks Yugi what the definition of a real duelist is. Everyone wonders what he is doing, while Joey tells Yugi that he's been searching for the answer througout Battle City, and he's reached the finals and still doesn't know the answer. Kaiba laughs at Joey and wonders why he wants to know this. Joey tells Yugi that he has taught him to fight bravely in all his duels. He tells Tristan that he has taught him too, which confuses Tristan. Joey thinks back to all his duels in Battle City, against Espa Roba, Weevil, Mako, and Odion, and says that because of them he has also found his weak point. He then thinks back to the moment before Mai's duel against Yami Marik, when she told them to not bother coming to watch her duel. He says he's learned a lot from her too. He then tells Yugi that in Battle City, there is only one person you can trust, and in a Battle Royale, everyone else is an enemy. Kaiba smirks, while Marik is growing impatiant and tells Yugi to continue the duel. Joey tells Yugi that if he is a real duelist, then he'll attack him and stop covering him just because of their promise. Everyone wonders what he's doing, and Mokuba points out that although he has the most Life Points, a direct attack from Yugi's Gilfer will rise him higher than everyone else. Joey says that he is the weakest duelist as he has no monsters on the field, and a real duelist would attack the weakest duelist first so they can duel the strongest one later. He tells Yugi that even if he's knocked out of this duel, he promises that he'll see him in the finals, and tells Yugi to attack him. Yugi agrees and tells Gilfer to give Joey a direct attack and reduce his Life Points to 1000. As the smoke clears from Yugi's attack, Joey just smiles as he rises up to the 1000 marker, higher than everyone else. Joey tells Marik to come with him to the top so they can duel. Marik just laughs.

Now that it's Joey's turn, he draws, and thinks back to the Duelsit Kingdom finals when Mai gave him her Glory of the King's Hand card. He silently tells her that he will repay her for everything she's done for him. He plays Axe Raider and surprises everyone when he announces that he will attack Kaiba. As Axe Raider prepares to attack Kaiba's Blade Knight, Kaiba laughs at Joey's stupidity, and reveals his trap card, Ring of Destruction, which attatches to Axe Raider. Kaiba also activates Defense Wheel to block the damage Joey recieves from hurting him. As Ring of Destruction explodes and destroys Axe Raider, everyone is shocked to see Yami Marik's LPs decrease to 0. Marik wonders what happened. Joey explains that he activated the card he played face down at the beginning of the duel, Grave Robber. He used it to steal Marik's Spell of Hate card from his graveyard and use it's effects to transfer the damage that he suffered to Marik, lowering his Life Points to 0. As Marik rises to the top of the tower, the tells Joey that he will regret this. While Joey is happy that his stratigy worked, Mokuba points out that Joey cannot play any more Monsters this turn, and he'll lose when Seto attacks him. Joey knows this, but says that's the way he planned for it to be.

Now that it's Kaiba's turn, Kaiba tells Joey that he's stupid for knowingly making himself lose. He orders Blade Knight to attack Joey's Life Points. As it attacks, Joey smiles because now his plan to duel Yami Marik in the finals is complete. Joey's LPs go down to 0, and his platform rises up to where Marik is waiting. Marik informs him that his duel will be in the Shadow Realm, but Joey doesnt care. He promises Marik that he will defeat him and his Egyptian God Card. Marik just laughs. The referee announces that the duel is over. The first duel will be Marik Ishtar Vs. Joey Wheeler and the second will be Yugi Moto Vs. Seto Kaiba. All 4 duelists are shot up to the top of the tower.