"My turn..."
Chazz said in a deep voice.
The situation is absolutely unfavorable; currently, there's no means of counterattack at hand, but his Life Points are still ample, giving him a chance.
"Draw a card."
Upon seeing the newly drawn card, Chazz's eyes lit up.
"Heh, the goddess of victory is still on my side after all."
Chazz drew two cards from his hand, sending one to the graveyard and playing the other.
"Activate the Magic Card 'Cost Reduction'! Discard a card from the hand, allowing all the Monster Cards in my hand to reduce their level by two stars this turn!"
Cost Reduction, a method often used by Seto Kaiba in DM, decreases the number of tributes needed for high star Monster Cards in hand, allowing for direct summoning.
"Moreover, the card I discarded to activate the effect of 'Cost Reduction' was the Magic Card 'Card of Compensation.' This card lets me draw two cards from the deck when discarded from the hand to the graveyard." (Original Card)
Yugen: "..."
The card drawing engine in the animation is truly monstrous; drawing cards without warning would explode in a physical card environment...
"According to the effect of 'Card of Compensation,' draw cards from the deck."
Ammunition replenished once more, Chazz curled his lips, seeming to have regained an upper hand.
"You actually caused me quite a bit of trouble; it seems I underestimated you. However! It ends here!"
Chazz raised his voice.
"According to the effect of 'Cost Reduction,' the original Level 6 'Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon' in hand becomes Level 4, allowing it to be summoned without tributes.
Thus, I normally summon this guy. Appear now—
——Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon!"
A golden storm swirled in the field, emerging from the vortex was a dragon adorned with imperial gold, its body seeming to be enflamed with golden flames.
[Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon, Attack Power 2400]
"Your petty tricks end here; in elite duels, only power is the key to victory!" Chazz raised his hand, "Use Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon to defeat 'Spirit Annihilation Mage - Sea Sky'!"
The golden dragon opened its mouth, spiraling shock waves spewing forth. The monk holding prayer beads was pierced immediately, exiting the stage amidst a cloud of smoke.
[Yugen, LP 1700 → LP 1100]
"Then cover a card on the field, ending the turn!"
Chazz took a deep breath.
Almost there, just a little bit more.
He has regained control, just slightly more and he can crush the opponent's defenses and deliver a fatal blow.
Chazz might not even realize, but his mindset has unknowingly shifted from a casual "annihilate the opponent to advance" to a "only one of us can stand and leave" state.
It's starting to feel like a grudge match.
He has never felt so intolerably compelled to topple the opponent in any duel before today.
Just imagining the opponent's Life Points dropping to zero, lying on the ground under the full-on assault of his firepower through holographic immersive effects, makes him want to laugh heartily.
"My turn, draw a card," Yugen said calmly, "first, I play this card from my hand... Magic Card 'Hurricane'!"
A green storm whipped up, the powerful wind pressure swept the field completely. Chazz had to shield his face with both arms, his covered cards blown back into his hand.
This is one of the staple cards of Joey Wheeler's deck in DM, but in the physical card environment, it has been a Forbidden Card in the "black room" for years.
"Hurricane is a card that returns all Magic Trap cards on the field back to the owner's hand."
"Tsk." Chazz looked at the cards returned to his hand, smirking.
The layout in the back was dismantled... but it shouldn't be a big issue. Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon is a high-star monster with 2400 attack, it shouldn't be so easily overcome.
Moreover, Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon hides a strong Monster Effect. If it gets destroyed and sent to the graveyard, any monster on the field can be bounced back to its owner's hand.
In other words, even if the opponent manages to summon a major beast surpassing Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon next turn, the death rattle will promptly handle it after defeating Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon.
The more Chazz thought about it, the more pleased he grew.
The opponent only saw the covered cards in the back, surely assuming that eliminating the Trap would assure peace of mind. Unbeknownst to them, a truly elite duel is thoroughly considered, with dual traps set as insurance.
He has a significant advantage!
"I summon 'Killer Tomato' in attack mode," Yugen continued.
[Killer Tomato, Attack Power 1400]
Chazz snorted: "Heh, you can only summon small fry to act as wall monsters... huh?"
He noticed something amiss mid-sentence.
Wait a second, Killer Tomato in attack mode?
A sudden sense of dread washed over him...
"Next, activate a Magic Card from my hand..."
With a flick of Yugen's right arm, the image of a Magic Card popped up in front of him.
"Magic Card - Forced Transfer! Both players must each select one monster from their field and exchange control!"
Chazz: "What!?"
This is ridiculous; your deck is full of such nonsense?
Can we duel properly?
"The monster I'm choosing is obviously the one on my field," Yugen pointed at the big tomato head on his field, "'Killer Tomato.' Now, choose the monster you want to exchange."
Chazz: "..."
Heh, I'd choose your grandpa.
Clearly, Chazz didn't have a choice. He only had one "Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon" on the field.
Yet this Magic Card forcibly requires each player to choose, even if there's only one option, the system can't act on behalf of the Duelist. So Chazz could only tearfully mark his Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon, watching helplessly as his 2400 attack monster was swapped to the opponent's side...
...And exchanged for a bouncing, round tomato head.
As Chazz turned his head, he even noticed this tomato head cheekily grinning, mocking him with unrestrained ridicule...
"Battle Phase," Yugen declared, "use 'Emperor Soaring Wind Dragon' to attack 'Killer Tomato."
The golden dragon opened its mouth, a dominating dragon breath bursting through the little tomato, showing no mercy to its previous owner a second ago. Killer Tomato exploded into pieces, the shock wave forcing Chazz to stagger back half a step.
[Chazz, LP 3300→LP 2300]
"Dammit..." Chazz muttered through gritted teeth.
But it wasn't even over yet.
"Killer Tomato, activate effect." Yugen swept his hand, "When Killer Tomato is destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, I can special summon a Dark Attribute monster with attack power of 1500 or less from my deck!"
Chazz: "!?"
Chazz, being the top student that he is, instantly deduced the procedure of this effect.
In duel rules, even if the control of a monster is temporarily swapped due to card effects, when destroyed and sent to the graveyard, it's sent to the original owner's graveyard according to the rules.
Killer Tomato's original owner is Yugen, so even if control was swapped to Chazz's field, when destroyed, it would still go to Yugen's graveyard.
So when its effect is processed after being destroyed, it naturally means Yugen can special summon from the deck, not Chazz...
Once Chazz figured out this logic, his face turned even darker.
"Damn, I take the hit and you get the search?"
The monster went to the opponent's field, I'm the one taking the hit, and the opponent is still the one doing the searching...
You wouldn't think of this blood-pressure-maxing combo unless you'd spent ten years in the Underworld.
But thinking this was already hell-level, Chazz was evidently still too young.
Yugen pulled out the Monster Card he had searched from the deck.
"Based on Killer Tomato's effect, I special summon this card from my deck—
—Leader - Zarug!"
[Leader - Zarug, Attack Power 1400]
"The battle phase continues. Because it was special summoned during the battle step, my Leader - Zarug can also continue to attack."
Yugen said, waving his hand.
"Direct attack on Chazz."
The one-eyed leader stylishly whipped out his two revolvers, firing repeatedly, with virtual bullets passing through Chazz's body.
"Ugh..." Chazz gritted his teeth and tried to steady himself.
[Chazz, LP 2300→LP 900]
"At this moment, Leader - Zarug's effect activates." Yugen said, "When Zarug deals battle damage to the opponent, it can randomly discard one of the opponent's cards."
"I'll destroy the card to your right."
Zarug fired again, the bullet went through one of Chazz's hand cards with a bang.
Chazz looked at the "Universal Landmine - Broadsword Style" with a hole through it and suddenly felt darkness and a little like vomiting blood.
The Universal Landmine - Broadsword Style can destroy the highest attack power monster on the field during the opponent's attack declaration, a powerful Trap Card for duelist comebacks.
Clearly, this was the card just blown back to Chazz's hand by the "Hurricane," completely without a chance to exert its mighty power before being shattered in Chazz's hand...
Chazz sent Broadsword Style to the grave with a grim face.
But there's still a chance.
He had one last card.
Equipment Magic, Premature Burial.
Pay 800 LP and revive a Monster Card from your graveyard, a divine card for comebacks in many situations.
But here's the issue: Chazz, up to this point, had not a single monster in his graveyard, all booted to another dimension...
"Main phase 2." Yugen flashed another card in his hand, "Activate Magic Card 'Strongly Summoned Soldiers.' It lets you choose a card from the opponent's hand to return to their deck, and after shuffle the deck."
Chazz: "..."
His face twitched slightly, as if he was trying to control his rising anger, silently returning his last card to the deck. But this vigorous effort to control his facial muscles made it look like he was performing some kind of unusual facial art...
Just like that, Chazz's last card was sent back to the deck.
If this was physical card competition, the duel would already be over here. Hoping to turn the tables with one card in the next draw is basically dreaming. But considering that in the animation everyone seems to have divine draws in desperate situations, Yugen made sure he was secure.
"Set one card, turn ends."
This was his final insurance policy to kill the game.
"My turn..."
Chazz gritted his teeth, intensely staring at the top card of his deck, feeling adrenaline surge.
Being eliminated by a One-Star rookie, what a joke?
Chazz Princeton had participated in countless competitions, even if not always taking the crown, he'd never had this kind of experience.
This kind of humiliation is unacceptable for him, and the family surely would not accept it either.
But it's not over yet!
He would bet everything on the next card!
"Draw!"
At a glance of the drawn card, Chazz's face changed into a complex expression.
Angel's Charity.
Magic Card. Allows you to draw three cards from your deck and then discard two cards from your hand.
In this desperate situation, it was unarguably a divine draw, allowing him to increase the chance of drawing a comeback card with moving three cards.
But it made him painfully recall the "Premature Burial" that had just been placed back into the deck. Had "Premature Burial" been in his hand, with "Angel's Charity," if the next three cards had a high-star monster, he could toss it to the grave with "Angel's Charity" and resurrect it with Premature Burial to achieve a splendid comeback...
Of course, all this was impossible due to just now that damned "Strongly Summoned Soldiers."
Chazz found the feeling of dueling with this bast**d strangely peculiar. The whole duel process seemed kind of irritating at first glance, but the more he thought, the more pissed off he got...
But the draw gave him the opportunity to continue. Chazz regrouped, prepared to activate the magic card, but suddenly noticed that the opponent's cover card had activated silently.
Trap Card - Fallen. Activated during the opponent's draw phase, forcing the opponent to discard the drawn card into the graveyard directly.
Chazz: "......"
The killing trap card, Yugen's final insurance, strangling even the chance of a divine draw at its cradle.
At this moment, senior Sato Koji standing upfront witnessing this scene, suddenly jumped out of his seat and slapped his thigh fiercely.
"This I know! It's exactly that feeling!"