Yuya and the Lancers arrive at Academia and begin to head to the school. Seeing them, Leo orders an instructor, Sanders, to move against them. Sanders assembles a group of elite Academia duelists to send against the Lancers. Another force of Academia duelists confront the Lancers, and they split up, Reiji, Reira and Sora going to find Leo while the rest - Yuya, Crow, Gongenzaka, Sawatari, and Tsukikage - stay behind to duel. Sanders instructs his students to watch on how to perform a proper capture of an enemy. When the Lancers turn the tide, the Academia duelists flee, leading them into a trap that ensnares the Lancers. Sanders selects five of his students to send against the Lancers in a five-on-five Battle Royal Duel. However, Sanders also intends for the Academia duelists to defeat each other, until only the best stands. The ten duelists arrive in the arena, and the duel begins in a jungle field.
Tsukikage, frustrated at not detecting the trap that caught them, takes off into the jungle to defeat the five by himself. An Academia duelist sees a pair of eyes in the bushes, and is attacked and his signal lost. The Lancers find him carded later and wonder if Tsukikage did it. A watching Academia duelist flees, and the Lancers are split up in pursuit. The Academia duelist warns a comrade that "something else" is in the jungle. Several duelists spot battling monsters in the trees, and see Tsukikage dueling someone. Tsukikage's field is destroyed by his unseen foe, and an Academia duelist decides to join the duel. However, Tsukikage's opponent attacks and cards him before he can take a turn. Sanders' students watching realize something is attacking them in the arena.
Tsukikage is cornered, and makes a final attack. Yuya and Gongenzaka see a familiar light and run to the source to find Tsukikage has been carded. With his final attack, Tsukikage carved the number "11" on a tree. Yuya realizes there is an eleventh duelist in the arena attacking both sides. Sawatari finds another Academia duelist's card, and sees a pair of glowing eyes in the bushes. He challenges it, and Crow hears Sawatari scream.
Meanwhile, Edo meets with Yugo and explains about Rin and Ruri being controlled, as he saw what happened to Kurosaki. Yugo tells Edo about Parasite Fusioner, and Edo ponders what it means.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- A Death in the Limelight: Tsukikage gets an unusual amount of focus in this episode. Then he gets carded.
- Ambiguous Situation: Sawatari is heard screaming in the distance after facing someone in a duel. Whether this was a mere scream from pain or being carded is unknown.
- And I Must Scream: Tsukikage is the first of the Main Lancers to be carded.
- Continuity Nod: Two of Sanders' students suggest fighting the Lancers three-on-one in Battle Royal mode to overwhelm them, just like Obelisk Force has been trained to do.
- Defector from Decadence: When Yugo asks Edo if he's an Academia officer, he replies that he's already a renegade at this point.
- Dying Clue: Since Tsukikage is about to be carded at the hands of the Battle Beast, he leaves one last clue to Yuya's group before that happened.
- Fission Mailed: Turns out that Yugo's attempt to save Rin wasn't All for Nothing after all: He told Edo that destroying the Parasite Fusioners is the only way to restore the bracelet girls' sanity, although Edo also told him before that defeating the Doctor might be the best solution to get rid of the aforementioned bugs.
- Foreshadowing:
- While the duel is stated to be five-on-five, an eleventh duelist can clearly be seen on Sanders' screen at the start, separate from either force.
- The fact the 11th duelist is attacking the Academia students first hints at his true feelings.
- Mythology Gag: Just the title itself. It has something to do with the second half of GX (life-threatening bracelets, Duelists "dying" in Another Dimension after losing, etc.).
- Mr. Exposition: Edo gives Yugo the information about the Doctor's People Puppets method on Rin and Ruri.
- Player Killing: This is the true purpose of Sanders' "special lesson".
- Plot Armor: Despite losing to the Doctor (through Rin), Yugo can't be written off just yet. This was actually neatly foreshadowed in the previous episode, where Reiji theorized that the Dragon Boys were also part of the Arc Area Project and Revival Zero.
- Single Tear: Yuya sheds a tear when he and Gongenzaka find Tsukikage carded.
- Unexpected Character: Gladiator Beasts probably were not expected to be seen on ARC-V anytime soon, being an old archetype from the GX era that never made an appearance in the anime proper.
- Wham Episode: Tsukikage's "demise" serves as an ill omen to Yuya's group: no one is safe from being carded, not even a Lancer, or a Legacy Character.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Yuya's group use themselves as meat shields to stall some Academia soldiers and give Reiji's group enough time to pass through.
