An invisible barrier took shape on the field, like a force field wrapping around Great Maju Garzett and granting it near total immunity. With 6000 ATK and protection that strong, this was the source of his confidence.
"Oh, not bad. But!" Seto Kaiba raised his voice and played another card from his hand.
"Before your Safe Zone can take effect, I activate the Quick-Play Spell Inherited Soul from my hand!"
"I tribute one Effect Monster I control to send one Effect Monster you control to the Graveyard. I tribute my other Nimble Momonga and choose your Great Maju Garzett to send it to the Graveyard!"
He paused and added with a cold smile, "Your Safe Zone has not taken effect yet, so your Great Maju Garzett can still be chosen. Disappear."
A violent vortex of energy burst from the card and swallowed Garzett in an instant. Trapped under overlapping effects, the unfortunate Great Maju Garzett could not escape its fate.
"Damn it. Then I activate another face-down!" Ken Fujimoto shouted. "Trap Card Mystic Wok!"
"I destroy one monster I control and recover LP equal to that monster's ATK. So before your Inherited Soul resolves, I destroy my Great Maju Garzett myself! (ANIME EFFECT)"
Boom.
The clash finally settled, and Great Maju Garzett fell by its owner's hand. The released energy flowed back into Ken Fujimoto's body, and he took it all in with trembling relief.
Ken Fujimoto's LP jumped from 4000 to 10000.
"My Life Points are ten thousand now!" Ken Fujimoto swelled with confidence.
The monster was gone, but ten thousand LP still stood. Could he really be defeated in one blow now?
"The turn Inherited Soul is activated, I can only attack with one monster." Seto Kaiba said evenly. "But after using Burst Stream of Destruction, Blue-Eyes White Dragon could not attack anyway."
"Next, I activate the Spell Card High Level Draw. I tribute one Level eight or higher monster I control to draw two cards from my Deck. I tribute my Blue-Eyes White Dragon and draw!"
After drawing, he barely glanced at the cards before activating another.
"I activate Trade-In. I discard a Level eight monster from my hand and draw two cards. I discard another Blue-Eyes White Dragon and draw again."
Unease crept back into Ken Fujimoto's chest. Sending Blue-Eyes White Dragon to the Graveyard again and again could not mean anything good.
Then again, it did not matter. He had ten thousand LP, and this turn the opponent could only attack with one monster. One monster dealing ten thousand damage was a joke.
"Quick-Play Spell, Ultimate Fusion!"
The final Spell Card floated before Seto Kaiba in a burst of golden light, like a sentence being read aloud.
"From my hand, field, and Graveyard, I return Fusion materials listed on Polymerization to the Deck and perform a Polymerization Summon!"
"From the hand, field, and Graveyard?" Ken Fujimoto cried out. "You can fuse like that?"
Genshin Yu among the onlookers shook his head, as if to say this was nothing special. He even hinted that fusing from the Deck itself might be possible someday.
"The evolution of Blue-Eyes White Dragon has long surpassed your imagination!" Seto Kaiba raised his hand high.
"I fuse the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in my hand and the other two Blue-Eyes White Dragon in my Graveyard for the ultimate Polymerization!"
"I will let you see it clearly. The strongest and most ultimate dragon in history, one that transcends time and space, descends now!"
"Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, I summon!"
The sky split with blinding light, and from a chaos like torn space, a radiant form filled with thunder descended like a miracle. Its massive body blotted out the sky, scales gleaming like stars, three noble heads raised high as its wings beat up a raging storm.
Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was summoned with ATK 4500.
"This is an ultimate dragon?" Ken Fujimoto murmured.
His legs trembled as if he were facing a god, and he could barely keep his footing as he stared.
"No, this is not just an ultimate dragon. This is a new form developed by Seto Kaiba in recent years?"
With his field completely empty, Ken Fujimoto had no choice but to face the crushing pressure head-on, struggling to control his shaking legs.
"But you can only attack with one monster this turn. Even Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon only has 4500 ATK, and I still have ten thousand Life Points!"
"Hmph. That is why small fry will always be small fry. Your imagination ends right there." Seto Kaiba sneered.
"Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon's effect. Once per Duel, this card can attack three times in one turn! (ANIME EFFECT)"
"What did you say?" Ken Fujimoto collapsed onto the ground, nearly terrified out of his mind.
Four thousand five hundred attack, three times in one turn. This was an ability beyond anything he had ever heard of.
"Shatter. Break apart. Let the cheers ring out!" Seto Kaiba laughed loudly.
"Feel the ultimate power of the strongest Dragon clan. Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon attacks directly!"
"Ultimate Burst! Triple strike!"
All three dragon heads opened their jaws at once, unleashing earth-shaking beams of light like a bursting flood. Ken Fujimoto screamed as the damage hit him in one wave, the scene turning brutal in an instant.
Ken Fujimoto's LP fell from 10000 to 0.
Yugen watched the Duel in silence, resting his chin on his hand while thinking it through. What he saw was the level of Seto Kaiba eight years after the DM era, and it could stand in for the ceiling among known Duelists today.
In the GX animation, the president never really took the field himself, with the closest case being the Duel between Judai Yuki and "Kaibaman." That one looked more like a card Spirit molded after Seto Kaiba himself, and since Judai Yuki lost, it was hard to say how serious the other side had been. Judging by the fight right in front of him, it was no wonder everyone in the Duel world now called Seto Kaiba the best alive.
Even setting aside his unique trick of "Topdecking," the raw power of his Blue-Eyes Deck was already far ahead of its time, to the point that it looked like it came from a different era. Early in the GX storyline, even the main cast had only just left the simple back and forth style of play, and they were still impressed by summoning a two thousand attack monster on turn one. Back then, even Judai Yuki often started by normal summoning a vanilla monster and ending without setting a card, and students from Duel Academy were already considered top tier Duelists in the wider scene.
By comparison, the president was simply crushing everyone from a higher dimension. Having money and technology really did help, since he ran his own research and printed his own cards, and his Deck naturally stayed ahead of the times. If someone like Seto Kaiba with nearly endless resources had not pulled far ahead after so many years, that would have been the truly strange outcome.
"We won. As expected from my brother, so it is not really a surprise," Mokuba Kaiba said with a grin, rubbing his nose as he stepped up to Seto Kaiba. Only then did the satisfied president turn his gaze toward Yugen.
"Yugen Fujiki. Right?" He narrowed his eyes slightly. "I have something to say, but let me deal with the rat problem first."
Yugen raised an eyebrow. So he wanted to talk to him? For a moment he wondered if it was a card challenge, which did not seem impossible coming from Seto Kaiba. Maybe it was annoyance over his AI getting beaten at KaibaLand Arena, or maybe it was just a case of card hunger acting up.
He thought it over and figured that if it was not a life or death wager, there was no harm in accepting. Losing would not cost him much, and he could even consider charging a fee, maybe one Rare Card per match. If he somehow won, he might even achieve complete Rare Card freedom.