Sergey Volkov



Sergey Volkov (セルゲイ・ボルコフ Serugei Borukofu) is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime. He is an infamous criminal known as The Duelist Crusher who was re-purposed as one of Jean-Michel Roger's key enforcers in his takeover of the City.  

Appearance
Sergey is a very tall and muscular individual, towering above most other characters. He wears a full-body riding suit with green and purple parts, which are separated by a red lines. There are spikes on the elbows, around his middle and on bracelets. The suits opening is very broad, exposing a lot of skin from his upper torso, showing the many criminal marks he has on his head, neck and upper torso. His left eye is technological in nature, being a high tech scanner which can also provide Roger with a live feed of Sergey's view. His right sleeve was torn open during his Duel with Yuzu Hīragi and his arm was scarred, but his left arm appears to be completely mechanical and contains his Duel Disk. His legs were later shown to contain booster rockets, allowing him to accelerate explosively and fly. When merged with his D-Wheel, he comes out on top of the converted machine, riding single-wheeled with the former front wheels acting like extendable arms. Towards the end of his life, his identity as an actual humanoid cyborg is shown, as he consists of metals, wires, machinery, and scraps covered up with a humanoid appearance.

Etymology
Etymologically, Sergey's full name translates to "Protector of the Wolves." Given his connection to Jean-Michel Roger, his name references a Russian chess player of the same name.

Personality
Sergey is a sadomasochistic Duelist who Duels in a cruel manner. He continually inflicts damage to himself without attempting to stop it in addition to reveling in his own pain. He revels in the suffering he causes towards his opponent, as seen in his Duel against Yuzu where he brutally defeated her and rammed her D-Wheel with his own and went to describe the carnage as beautiful. He enjoys giving his opponent a false hope of victory and then crushing them, being submissive for most of the Duel, then defeat them with overwhelming power. However, these personality traits are usually restrained by Jean-Michel Roger through the use of a mind-control device. When Sergey gets highly excited or surprised by illogical Dueling behaviour however, the mind control breaks partially, revealing his own hot-blooded nature, expressing his love for 'beautiful' duels. This obsessive desire is worth everything to him, refusing rescue from a fatal fall so as not to ruin the moment. His idea of beauty, however, still remains as the process of destruction.

Abilities
He has incredible strength, able to effortlessly make his way through solid wall, as well as knock down multiple people at once. With the rocket boosters equipped near his feet, this gives him an enormous increase in speed, as well as letting him fly about. He can merge with his D-Wheel. Due to his enchanced eye, he can also scan cards on the field or ahead of him to further his strategys.

Past
Sergey was a dangerous Dueling criminal who viciously assaulted several Duelists, earning him the moniker of the Duelist Crusher. He was wanted dead or alive for these crimes. He was only stopped after a massive force of thirty Security operatives managed to capture him. He was sent to the Facility as a result. However, even in the Facility, Sergey was just as brutal as in the outside, and single-handedly defeated all the other inmates in the prison. His viciousness was such that he had to be placed underground. While in the underground, he was met and welcomed by Gallager who explained the rules of the disposal center and how he could climb back to the surface if he defeated every Duelist around. Sergey did so, destroying fifty opponents by himself, a feat that shocked Gallager and prompted the promoter to contact Jean-Michel Roger and send Sergey to him. At some point, Roger had Sergey undergo mind-altering surgery and had had his body modified to be largely technological in nature, turning him into his agent.

Friendship Cup
Sergey was first seen as a projection during the opening ceremonies of the Friendship Cup. He later appeared standing behind Jean-Michel Roger, watching the tournament's matches.

When Serena was selected to Duel Tony Simon rather than him, Roger informed him that his Duel with Serena would be for later, since he had to beat the favorite Duelists in the tournament, then defeat Jack Atlas so as to shock the City. He was eventually called to Duel Damon Lopez, shocking the audience that he was the legendary criminal. The Duel started, and the young Commons resident seemingly dominated Sergey for most of the match, forcing Sergey at the defensive all the time time, leaving the audience and Damon unimpressed. However through unknown means, he reverted the situation in one fell swoop and instantly defeated Damon, destroying his D-Wheel and leaving him injured, shocking the entire audience, who was at disbelief at how he ever won.

In the second round, he was set to Duel Yuzu Hīragi, and ordered to bring her to Jean-Michel Roger as she was one of the pieces that he required to build his kingdom. The news caused Sergey to smile.

Yuzu vs. Sergey
He Dueled Yuzu as the first match in the second round of the Friendship Cup, and appeared to be at a disadvantage for most of the Duel despite the strong effects of his "Thorn Prisoner" monsters. Sergey set up Thorn Counters that continually damaged him, and a fragment of pavement tore open his sleeve and scarred his arm, causing him to call it beautiful. He was amused when Yuzu displayed concern for him and believed that she had the Duel won after reducing his LP, and called it beautiful, far better than his Duel with Damon.Breaking from the control of his limiter, he Fusion Summoned "Thorn Over Server - Van Darli Zuma" on his next turn and madly declared that he had endured the pain until he got what he wanted. "Van Darli Zuma" defeated Yuzu's "Bloom Prima the Floral Melodious Saint" and when Yuzu attempted to get an Action Card, he crashed his D-Wheel into hers, flinging her through a building. He returned to the Duel Palace in a giggling daze, and didn't seem to register Security taking him into custody.

Reprogramming
Sergey was sent to his doctor so that he could begin "reprogramming" him. Jean-Michel Roger later insisted that the doctor hurry the process along so that the same could be done to Yūya Sakaki. After his "reprogramming", Roger sent him to the Council Building to help recapture the Executive Council. While waiting, Roger had Sergey intercept the Obelisk Force instead after they started to invade the City. Sergey engaged the Obelisk Force outside the Capital Building and continually defeated their members.

Capturing Yuzu
Roger then sent Sergey to retrieve Yuzu and Serena from both the Lancers and Academia forces. Sergey joined the Yūya and Barrett's Duel, taking the intrusion penalty, then trapping Yuzu with his Field Magic "Earthbound Prison". He simultaneously Fusion and Synchro Summoned "Earthbound Servant Geo Griffon" and "Earthbound Servant Geo Kraken" and finished off Barrett in an OTK. He was however, unable to stop Barrett from carrying Serena back to the Fusion Dimension at the last moment. An enraged Roger instructed Sergey to ensure that Yuzu's captured. Although Yūya was now free of Barrett's "Chains", he was severely weakened in LP and ATK strength. Therefore, he Summoned "Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon", Sergey destroyed it with the effect "Geo Griffon" and then defeated the weakened and defenceless Yūya. The remaining Obelisk Force members fled, deprived of their commanders. Knocking down Tsukikage, "Twilight Ninja - Shingetsu" and Sora with his rocket boosters, he grabbed Yuzu, broke through the ceiling and flew off with Yuzu, successful in his mission.

Sergey vs. Jack Atlas
The next day, he went on semi-final Duel against Jack Atlas, who accepted a challenge due to Yūgo's absence. During this Duel, Sergey used the effects of his "Earthbound" cards to Synchro and Fusion Summon simultaneously. He tried to destroy Jack's "Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight", but Jack managed to protect his ace monster and destroy both of Sergey's "Earthbound Servants". After using "Earthbound Plain" to deal burn damage to Jack, Sergey's program started to drive him mad and combined him with own D-Wheel to become the ultimate Duel Machine.

As the Duel intensified, Sergey's heartbeat rose. He attempted to slow Jack down by tearing up the track with his D-Wheel's arms, and Synchro and Fusion Summoned "Earthbound Servant Geo Gremlin" and "Earthbound Servant Geo Gremlina", then he forced Jack to choose whether to destroy "Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight". Jack refused to destroy the pride of his soul and kept his ace monster out and continued to protect it. When Sergey began to fall off the track due to the damage that he'd caused to the track destroying the bridge, Jack saved him from falling using "Scarlight". This corrupted Sergey's program and unleashed Sergey's sadomasochistic nature, breaking himself from the control of Roger. It finally came down to them no longer using Action Cards, and despite Sergey summoning his ultimate "Earthbound", "Earthbound Servant Geo Glasya-Labolas", Jack was still able to hold on and win the Duel. When Sergey was thrown off the course, Jack attempted to save him once more, but Sergey rejected it this time, knocking away "Scarlight" with one of the arms of the Duel Machine. He requested that Jack honor his beautiful defeat before falling to his presumed doom.

Destroyed
Despite being very damaged from his fall, he survived and attempted to crawl away. Here, it is revealed that Sergey received cybernetic implants during the course of his life to the point that he looked like a cyborg/robot. His face pealed away to reveal machinery, he crawled with only his bloodless, metallic, electricity-spewing torso, and his lower half of the body was a jumbled mass of scrap, metal, machinery, wires, and electricity. However, a group of nearby Commons saw him, recognized him as the Duelist Crusher, and proceeded to pick up weapons. A moment later, Roger received a "no signal" message on his monitor, implying that Sergey was destroyed.