Chapter 145. Team Tag Duel Gains New Power! A 30,000-ATK Number 100: Numeron Dragon!
In the Duel Monsters world, Maximillion Pegasus and Seto Kaiba finally lost their composure.
They were both corporate leaders in this world.
When they heard that the essence behind banlists and unbans was once again tied to profit, they truly could no longer keep a lid on it.
"Good—too good!"
"K-Snake will do anything for money!"
"Compared to that, my Industrial Illusions is much more conscientious!"
Pegasus spoke loudly with a playful smile.
It was as if he were saying this to the other duelists of the Duel Monsters world as well.
"Hmph, fearless."
"My KaibaCorp has a vast fortune!"
"If it were under my management, I wouldn't restrict cards like this."
Seto Kaiba snorted, then closed his eyes and stopped watching.
In the short video, the content about K-Snake's bans and unbans had finished.
Veteran Furicon Player: "Alright, up to here I think you cardheads already have a certain understanding of K-Snake."
Veteran Furicon Player: "Next, there isn't much left for me to say."
Veteran Furicon Player: "I wish every cardhead explosive luck opening packs and insane pulls!"
"Thanks for watching, see you next time."
As the short video ended, Sei Yuki in the main world quickly began searching for the next video.
At the same time, he kept an eye on the discussions among duelists from the various worlds in the chat.
It had to be said.
After this round of K-Snake's banlist/unban video, it seemed these anime-world duelists disliked K-Snake even more.
That was within Sei Yuki's expectations.
But that was normal.
After all, their world's duelists were very familiar with K-Snake's true face.
"Let me see what to pick next."
"This one looks good?"
"Tag Duel?"
After searching for a while, Sei Yuki quickly found the next short video target.
The title appeared.
"Team Tag Duel Gains New Power! What do you mean, a sneaky victory formula?!"
A team tag duel?
Duelists from the various worlds quickly focused on the title and content following the K-Snake video.
They had already seen quite a few two-player team duels.
The two-player tag duel with Future Dragon Ruler plus the one-card little Blue summoning Holactie was still fresh in their minds.
So the duelists quickly realized this round might once again feature some unexpected victory formula.
Meanwhile, the duel information also popped up in the short video.
Side A (Red) — Exodia duelist: going first.
Side B (Blue) — HERO duelist: going second.
Side C (Red) — Machine duelist: going third.
Side D (Blue) — diehard Dragon-deck duelist: going last.
Both teams' Life Points: 16,000 LP.
They share one Field, one Graveyard, and one banished zone.
Once confirmed, the video began.
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "Alright, this time I'm teaming up with Aibo to duel! It's my turn to start!"
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "I activate the Spell Card, Millennium Cross!"
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "Per its effect, I reveal the five 'Forbidden One' pieces from my hand and Deck!"
"Then I can Special Summon this monster: The Legendary Exodia Incarnate!"
"I Set two cards!"
"At the end of the turn—"
"I activate The Legendary Exodia Incarnate's effect to Set a Trap from my Deck: 'Wrathful Inferno — Exozodo Flame Cannon'!"
This wasn't an entertainment-specialized Exodia deck.
It was a true Exodia build.
That had been covered before, so the old guard in the Duel Monsters and GX worlds only paused for a beat before catching on.
Calling it an Exodia deck was fine, but "Millennium Deck" might be even more fitting.
B-Side HERO Duelist: "My turn! Draw!"
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "I activate the monster effect, Maxx 'C'!"
B-Side HERO Duelist: "First, I'll give you a big present—Radian, the Multidimensional Kaiju."
B-Side HERO Duelist: "I activate the Spell, A Hero Lives."
"If I control no face-up monsters, I can pay half my LP to activate it."
"I Special Summon Elemental HERO Stratos from my Deck."
"Stratos, activate your effect!"
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "I activate Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring from my hand."
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "Negate your Stratos search."
B-Side HERO Duelist: "No fear! I continue with the Spell, EN Shuffle."
B-Side HERO Duelist: "Per its effect, I shuffle Stratos back into the Deck."
"Then I Special Summon Elemental HERO Spirit of Neos."
"I activate the Spell, Neos Fusion."
"From my Deck, I send Rainbow Dragon and Elemental HERO Neos to the Graveyard."
"Fusion Summon!"
"Emerge—Elemental HERO Rainbow Neos!"
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "So strong! So cool! I love it!"
A-Side Exodia Duelist: "I flip both Set Traps—Crackdown."
"Your Rainbow Neos and Spirit of Neos—"
"Hand them over."
B-Side HERO Duelist: "???"
B-Side HERO Duelist: "Ridiculous! You hard-flipped double Crackdown on me?!"
"In that case, I'll Set one monster."
"My turn is over."
In the GX world, the back-and-forth made many of the old guard draw a sharp breath.
Especially at the moment Rainbow Neos hit the board.
Even though Jaden Yuki, Aster Phoenix, and Jesse Anderson knew of the card, their pupils still contracted.
But in the very next second, when the two Crackdowns appeared, the three nearly coughed up blood.
Damn.
So this is HERO life?
We just started to develop and immediately ate two traps?
And it's Crackdown, the cuckold's favorite.
Now things were a bit rough.
"I'm sick! This is disgusting! Our HERO player!"
"So painful! I'm tilted right at the start!"
Aster grew more and more heated and immediately spoke up.
"Ahem, small matter, small matter."
"It's only the beginning. There'll be plenty of chances later."
"HERO is invincible on offense and defense."
Jaden coughed twice and quickly calmed down.
This was just the appetizer. The HERO deck had plenty of power yet to show.
C-Side Machine Duelist: "Nice job, teammate."
C-Side Machine Duelist: "My turn! Draw."
C-Side Machine Duelist: "The card I drew is Slifer the Sky Dragon."
"Looks like the card gods are responding to me."
"I can't hold back."
"I've got exactly three monsters on my field."
"I Tribute all three to Special Summon."
"Descend, card god."
"Slifer the Sky Dragon!"
"I have five cards in hand. Slifer's ATK is 5000."
"I enter the Battle Phase."
"Thunder attack. Destroy your Set monster."
"Turn end."
A Summoned God.
Without the slightest hesitation.
He directly offered up three powerful aces on the field as Tributes.
Everyone knew Slifer's power.
It was a belief.
But without its original protection, Slifer truly wasn't worth bringing out again.
Foolish.
Far too foolish.
Even so, from this, Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, and Marik Ishtar—Tomb Keepers all—saw something.
It seemed that even duelists from the higher world had a certain fixation on the Egyptian God Cards.
Even if Slifer was no longer strong enough, was it worth bringing it out like this?
D-Side diehard Dragon-deck Duelist: "Slifer? Heh."
D-Side diehard Dragon-deck Duelist: "My turn. Draw."
D-Side diehard Dragon-deck Duelist: "Traitor Dragon, you can come out too."
"Hilarious. I activate Infinite Impermanence."
"I negate your Slifer the Sky Dragon."
"Then I Special Summon Schwarzschild Limit Dragon from my hand."
"I activate its effect to pull Galaxy-Eyes Afterglow Dragon from my Deck."
"Using two cards, I construct the Xyz Network."
"Rank 8—Number 90: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Lord."
"I activate this monster's effect and add Rank-Up-Magic – The Seventh One from my Deck."
"Photon Lord continues—by detaching two materials, I activate its effect."
"I Xyz Summon by placing on top of it one Rank 8 Dragon-Type 'Number' monster with 3000 ATK from my Extra Deck."
"I rank up into Number 97: Draglubion."
"Also, Afterglow Dragon's effect pulls Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon from my Deck."
"I then activate Galaxy Expedition to pull Photon Emperor from my Deck."
"Photon Emperor and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon construct an Xyz Network."
"Rank 8—Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy."
"I now activate Number 97: Draglubion's effect."
"I detach one material. From my Extra Deck and Graveyard, I choose two Dragon-Type 'Number' monsters with different names, except Draglubion."
"I Special Summon one and attach the other as material."
"I choose to Special Summon Number 100: Numeron Dragon."
"I choose to attach Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon as its material."
"Come forth, the power of Number 100."
Number 100?
Numeron Dragon?
Whoa?
It's that card!
In the ZEXAL world, Yuma Tsukumo and Astral sprang to their feet.
Their pupils shrank as they stared, dumbfounded, at the outrageous Number 100 that suddenly appeared.
At that instant, they realized the seriousness of the situation.
Yes.
A package of Number 97: Draglubion with Galaxy support was a bit too terrifying, wasn't it?
Kite Tenjo was both thrilled and shocked.
What was this?
New top-tier tech popping out so quickly to give Galaxy-Eyes a plug-in?
And those cards were not weak at all.
The more Kite thought about it, the happier he got.
Was Galaxy-Eyes on the rise again?
In the ARC-V world, after seeing this sequence, Yuto and Shay Obsidian's faces changed.
Their hearts lurched.
This was bad.
Xyz had brought out another powerhouse they didn't know.
And the synergy with Galaxy-Eyes seemed excellent, with a very strong power spike.
"Looks like this duel just got interesting."
"That Number 100: Numeron Dragon's ATK scaling is getting scary."
At the same time, Yuya noticed something off in the short video.
Numeron Dragon's ATK was skyrocketing.
D-Side diehard Dragon-deck Duelist: "I activate Numeron Dragon's effect."
"Once per turn, I can detach one material, and this card gains ATK equal to the combined Ranks of all Xyz Monsters on the field times 1000, until the end of your turn."
"The total Rank on my field is 17."
"So Numeron Dragon's ATK is 17,000."
"But we're not done."
"I activate a Quick-Play Spell—Myth of the Dragon King—targeting one Dragon I control."
"That monster's ATK becomes double until the end of the turn."
"My Numeron Dragon's ATK is doubled."
"The final ATK is 34,000."
How much?
Thirty-four thousand ATK?
Seeing that last doubling, the old guard of every world went slack-jawed.
They stared, stunned, as Numeron Dragon's ATK continued to surge, finally settling at over thirty thousand.
With that much ATK, one punch into Slifer and the duel ends.
No way.
Was this team tag duel about to be over already?
But there was still one card in the opponent's back row, so it might not be that simple.
D-Side diehard Dragon-deck Duelist: "Relax. I won't kill you."
"I activate the Spell—Rank-Up-Magic – The Seventh One."
"I can reveal any 'Number 101' to 'Number 107' monster in my Extra Deck to activate it."
"Then I add from my Deck to my hand one monster with the same Type or Attribute and the same Level as the revealed monster's Rank."
"I reveal the WATER monster, Number C101: Silent Honor DARK."
"I add Catapult Turtle from my Deck."
What?
Catapult Turtle?
Huh?
No way.
Was he going to Tribute the 34,000-ATK Numeron Dragon to trigger Catapult Turtle's effect and burn for half its ATK?
That's 17,000 damage.
Everyone knows team tag LP is only 16,000.
Holy—!
Was it over?
Old-guard duelists across worlds trembled.
They never expected the final victory formula to be Catapult Turtle.
D-Side diehard Dragon-deck Duelist: "Time to end this."
"You're already dead."
"I Tribute the Number 97: Draglubion on my field for a Tribute Summon."
"Slifer is a 'card god'? Wrong."
"The real card god is—Catapult Turtle."
C-Side Machine Duelist: "So strong. Too strong."
C-Side Machine Duelist: "I immediately activate the effect of the card in my hand—Nibiru, the Primal Being."
"Hahaha, feels great."
"All monsters on the field get Tributed."
"Here's your Token. I Special Summon the giant meteor."
D-Side diehard Dragon-deck Duelist: "Heh, congrats on clawing back a life."
"My turn is over."
The whole audience was in an uproar.
They'd been marveling at the brilliant line.
Catapult Turtle, the unbeatable victory formula—yet everyone was left dumbfounded.
Only now did they truly understand.
Don't just look at what's on the field.
Look at what's in each duelist's hand.
Yes.
Hand traps were a ridiculous rule element.
This time, he didn't even take the safer route of entering the Battle Phase before Catapult Turtle.
And it was still completely cracked.
One Nibiru.
How many combo players' hopes had it shattered?
If it were them, they'd already be tilted.
Yet all the duelists noticed that the D-Side diehard Dragon-deck duelist didn't panic at all.
Even after eating the giant meteor, he still seemed relaxed, chatting and laughing.
As expected.
The higher world's duelists seemed to have excellent mental fortitude.
But mental strength aside.
The current situation had once again become tangled and uncertain.
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