His back row flipped open, revealing a Trap Card depicting Barrel Dragon firing its guns, clearly a trap made for the revolver dragon deck. "Once per turn, when you activate a coin toss effect, apply different effects based on the number of heads! (ANIME EFFECT)"
He swung his arm. "According to 'Desperado Barrel Dragon', spin the cylinder!"
The chamber whirled and two barrels flared with light. "Hahaha, looks like your luck is bad. I got two hits!"
He continued, "You only have Silent Magician on the field, and it is protected by 'Safe Zone', so it cannot be destroyed. But at this moment, Second Coin Toss activates!"
Golden light poured from the trap into the dragon. "First effect. When at least one head appears, inflict 500 damage to your opponent! (ANIME EFFECT)"
A blast tore across the field, punching through Yugen's body. He grunted and staggered back a step. Yugen's LP dropped from 1900 to 1400.
"Second effect! When two or more heads appear, destroy one card on your opponent's field! The card I destroy is… (ANIME EFFECT)"
He pointed to the back row. "Continuous Trap, 'Safe Zone'!"
The second shot fired, shattering the trap into golden fragments. The protective barrier around Silent Magician vanished with it.
"The drawback of 'Safe Zone,'" Yugen said calmly. "When it leaves the field, the chosen monster is destroyed. Therefore, 'Silent Magician LV8' is destroyed."
Silent Magician's form turned translucent as she faded away. She looked back at her master with regret, as if apologizing for being unable to protect him any longer.
"It's fine," Yugen said evenly. "You've done enough. Leave the rest to me."
She nodded and disappeared completely.
"That annoying mage is finally gone. Now it's over!" Bandit Keith shouted, his grin twisting as victory seemed within reach.
"This is the final blow! Machina Megaform, attack directly!"
"Direct attack with Machina Megaform!"
Flames burst from the engines behind the red Machina, blades raised high as it charged straight at Yugen, whose field was now completely empty. The strike came down head on, aimed to finish everything in one blow.
"That ends it. Die quietly and hand over your soul!"
Yugen obviously was not going to give up just because he said so. "I activate a set card. Trap Card 'Mirror Force'!"
"At this point you still had a Mirror Force hidden?" Bandit Keith was shocked.
"That's right. When the opponent declares an attack, Mirror Force destroys all Attack Position monsters."
A pale blue barrier formed in front of him, forcibly stopping the blade that crashed down from the red Machina. The rebound energy blasted back from the shield and turned into a storm of light that swept across Keith's side of the field.
"Tch. Trap Hole, Magic Cylinder, Solemn Judgment. One annoying trap after another." Keith curled his lip.
Weren't decks supposed to have every card carefully chosen, the soul of a Duelist? Then this soul of yours was really not very clean.
"But that won't do!" Keith shouted.
"Counter Trap Solemn Judgment! When an effect that would destroy two or more cards on the field activates, negate that activation and banish it from Yugi Muto! (ANIME EFFECT)"
Yugen frowned. This really was digging deep, pulling out something like that.
Against an opponent with strong fate power, even ordinary tactics lost efficiency very easily. In later eras, Solemn Judgment was mostly replaced by Trap Card 'Starlight Road', which had a similar effect and even summoned Stardust Dragon for free, but in this time it did not yet exist.
Here, Solemn Judgment served much the same role. The seemingly unbreakable shield of Solemn Judgment cracked open a Rift and shattered into fragments.
"Then the battle continues. Machina Megaform's direct attack!" Bandit Keith raised his voice again. "This time it's really over."
"Entering the damage calculation step," Yugen said as he revealed a card from his hand and swiftly sent it to the Graveyard. "The effect of 'Swift Scarecrow' from my hand.
When a direct attack is declared, during damage calculation, discard 'Swift Scarecrow' from your hand. You can negate the battle damage once."
A translucent scarecrow image appeared, standing protectively in front of Yugen. The killing blow from Machina Megaform slammed fully into the phantom, and the blade could not cut through at all.
"There's still something like this?" Bandit Keith said in frustration.
"Persistent, huh. Desperado Barrel Dragon cannot attack in the turn it activates its effect. My Turn! ends." Keith snorted. "Looks like you picked up another turn to live."
Yugen noticed that Keith's Machina Megaform did not summon any tokens at the end of the turn. He quickly realized that in the original version, Machina Megaform did not even have that kind of effect.
The real card version had later been changed into an Effect Monster with ATK boosts and a mandatory token summon, but the original was a normal monster with no text at all. That small detail eased his mind.
Watching the duel with her heart in her throat, Mystical Elf finally let out a long breath. She felt like this Duel was so stressful she needed fast acting medicine, and she had almost cheered when she saw Solemn Judgment, only to nearly despair again when it was countered.
The rise and fall of the hero's Duel was just too intense. She did not know that even if Barrel Dragon could attack again, another Swift Scarecrow in Yugen's Graveyard could still block one more strike.
That was the value of an old era god tier hand trap.
"To be honest, getting this far is already impressive, kid." After his attacks failed again, Keith switched to mental pressure. "But all your methods have been resolved, and your trump card has already been crushed by me.
Even if you somehow summon another High-Level Monster next turn, the moment you enter the Battle Phase it will be destroyed by 'Desperado Barrel Dragon'. On top of that, the Continuous Trap Second Coin Toss will chain and interfere with you even more. Your win rate is basically zero, so resisting is pointless."
Keith put his hands on his hips, full of confidence. "But it's not your fault. I'm just that strong."
Yugen replied flatly, "You were beaten by a normal monster."
The term had once been a nickname Seto Kaiba gave to Joey Wheeler, and it spread as his fame grew. Keith's face twitched.
"I am the strongest card professor in all of America," he roared. "An undefeated Duel expert across the entire continent!"
"You were beaten by a normal monster," Yugen repeated calmly.
"I was unlucky back then," Keith ground his teeth. "Now I've returned from hell. One day I'll find that guy again and reclaim my victory."
Yugen said, "You were beaten by the elementary school kid Maximillion Pegasus invited."
Keith fell silent.
Maybe it was better to go back to talking about normal monsters. Keith's expression darkened further as he clenched his fists, veins standing out on his forehead.
"I know your type. You're just like them. You think I'm a despicable Duelist, right? All that garbage about 'the dignity of a Duelist'?" He glared with bloodshot green eyes. "That's something only winners get to say.
Yugi Muto and Katsuya Jonouchi don't understand what it's like to fall from the top, to be humiliated and mocked, to have your pride crushed into nothing. You think I wanted this? Not everyone is Yugi Muto!"
He stared at Yugen with a grim look. "You look like some young prodigy. You haven't been through what I have. When you taste that hell, you'll understand me.
Then you'll know that dignity and bonds with cards are childish nonsense. Only power matters. Only winning matters. To win, anything goes, cheating, ambushes, even selling your soul to a demon."
Yugen was silent for a moment.
"In this world, even without relying on Orichalcos, you're already stronger than most Duelist. You're not wrong that the peak of a Duel belongs to only one person, and not everyone is Yugi Muto. But there's one thing you got wrong.
Before being winners, Yugi Muto and Katsuya Jonouchi are first and foremost Duelist. A Duel is not just a tool to decide victory. Being a Duelist means believing in your Deck at all times, not treating it like a master enslaving the weak."