Chapter 20: Hero and Dragon's Finishing Blow
The key card to reverse the entire duel's outcome—obtained.
Didn't have Polymerization? Used opponent's Polymerization.
Though technically 'stealing,' using Spell Card effects to 'steal' within the rules was legitimate strategy.
Finally grasping victory's final fragment, Amano raised the card high above his head.
"Spell Card—Polymerization, activate!"
If Amano 'stealing' Lutz's Polymerization earned surprised reactions from the crowd—
Actually using that stolen Polymerization earned shock... and suspicion.
"Hey, hey—the District 32 poor kid is using Fusion?"
"Summoning involving Extra Decks—can a bottom-district duelist even manage that?"
"He doesn't think just randomly fusing two monsters will work, does he? That's seriously underestimating the Eva system!"
As Amano had previously understood, this world matched the anime's worldview—no fixed Extra Deck existed.
Whether you could successfully summon monsters from the Extra Deck depended on earning Eva's recognition.
Like anime protagonists printing cards—whether card spirits would acknowledge them.
Of course, Fusion Monsters had one additional restriction compared to other summoning methods.
The recipe.
Selecting correct Fusion Materials to fuse correct monsters. The process of creating something from nothing required countless attempts by this world's duelists.
But Amano—a card player in his previous life—could completely skip this process.
Even after 18 years, some monster recipes remained firmly memorized in Amano's mind.
The spiral storm opened by Spell Card Polymerization gradually sucked in monsters on Amano's field.
"I fuse Elemental HERO Burstinatrix and Elemental HERO Avian on my field!"
How Heroes fight—anyone who'd watched Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime, even just the first episode, knew what monster these two Heroes as materials could fuse into.
Obviously the immortal phoenix... no, the 3000-point killer!
Actually, neither~
Amano had noticed that detail.
When Lutz combined the demon gods, he'd said those words:
["Come forth, inheriting the three demon gods' effects—Gate Guardian!"]
According to Amano's memory, Gate Guardian in the actual card game should just be a vanilla with no effects whatsoever.
But the anime was different. In the anime, Gate Guardian inherited the three demon gods' effects.
Could reduce attacking monsters' ATK to 0, usable three times. Offense and defense combined—representative early-series boss monster.
The distinction depended on which version Mainframe Eva restored for the cards.
Since Lutz said those words, and the duel adopted anime rules—
Most likely his summoned Gate Guardian had the complete anime effects, not the neutered real card version.
So if Amano fused Flame Wingman, he'd have zero chance of victory.
More importantly, his Extra Deck genuinely didn't contain that Hero Fusion Monster.
But he still chose this strategy.
"How Heroes fight? Fusion?"
Finesse had been completely captivated by Amano's words. Watching the Fusion spiral storm at field center, she seemed to understand something in an instant.
So Heroes were meant to play Fusion!
"Watch closely, Finesse—this is how Heroes fight!"
Amano's palm faced toward the Fusion spiral's center, calling forth his ace to reverse the match.
Immediately after, bursting through the iron cage arena, from directly overhead came an earth-shaking... dragon's roar!
"ROAAAR!"
Amano's Fusion didn't produce Flame Wingman.
But he was a man with full access to Dragon-Type Extra Decks.
Using two vanilla Heroes for Fusion—right now he had a better option.
"Let me show you all—even weak monsters' Fusion can transcend Level restrictions!"
Having been mocked all evening as a trash-monster-using pauper, Amano had to thoroughly slap these people's faces.
"With primordial breath, roar forth mountain-shattering force! The ultimate art of vanilla monsters—Fusion Summon! Fossil Dragon Archdragon!"
[Fossil Dragon Archdragon] [Level 9 DARK]
[Dragon/Fusion/Effect]
[ATK: 2700] [DEF: 2000]
Though projected as a monster through the Duel Disk, the Eva system's reproduction quality was undeniably extremely high—surpassing even anime presentation's power.
Archdragon's massive bulk bursting through the cage displayed to maximum degree the presence of an ancient colossal dragon descending into reality.
The Fusion transformation from Heroes to Dragon left everyone present dumbstruck.
Huh???
That can even be Fused?
Normal Fusion Summons—successfully Fused monsters at minimum retained some characteristics of Material monsters.
But look at Amano's Fusion.
Kept talking about how Heroes fight... Fossil Dragon Archdragon—does this thing have even a shred of 'Hero' shadow left?!
Lutz: "Impossible! Two trash monsters can Fusion Summon a 9-star Dragon-Type monster?!"
"Precisely because they're trash, it can be done!"
Amano furiously slammed the [Fossil Dragon Archdragon] card born in his Extra Deck onto his Duel Disk.
"Fossil Dragon Archdragon's Fusion condition is exactly two Normal Monsters!"
[Normal Monster × 2] [This card can only be Special Summoned by Fusion Summon.]
These were Fossil Dragon Archdragon's Fusion requirements.
In the VIP box, Kaiba Chiha's eyes gradually changed.
"An unknown Dragon-Type monster with no records in history."
She'd thought this was just a low-class duel where a poor duelist got unilaterally slaughtered as cannon fodder by a wealthy bounty hunter.
Instead, not only was the battle intense, an unknown Dragon-Type monster even appeared. For Kaiba Corporation investigating dueling truth, this was extremely important.
Especially since her older sister—the wealthy beauty CEO Kaiba Chiaki being rumored as 'dragon-sexual'—that wasn't unfounded gossip.
Chiha knew best that her older sister had near-abnormal obsession with Dragon-Type monsters.
"Using Hero monsters to Fuse a Dragon-Type monster?" Karl also expressed disbelief. "Such a thing is utterly unheard of."
Though Avian and Burstinatrix were Hero monsters, they also qualified as Normal Monsters.
Precisely because they were weak vanilla Heroes could this Fusion be completed.
"This is... how Heroes... fight?"
Finesse felt something was off—like she'd been deceived, yet simultaneously extremely excited.
Because this was incredibly cool.
It completely shattered Finesse's previous limitations regarding both Fusion and Heroes.
So-called Heroes weren't purely warriors—they could also refer to those who pioneered entirely new domains.
"Not enough!" Lutz's angry roar interrupted everyone's heated discussion about Amano's Fusion.
"Mere 2700 ATK can't compare to my Gate Guardian!"
Even as an ancient dragon, compared to Gate Guardian's 3750 ATK, it still had a 1050-point gap.
"What do we do now, Amano?!" Finesse nervously clenched both fair hands into tight fists.
With atmosphere reaching this point, that disappointed dejection Finesse felt earlier seemed to have completely vanished.
She actually believed the boy before her could 'win this duel for you.'
"Now—charging straight in, Archdragon!"
"Eh?!"
Amano's play once again shocked the entire venue.
Despite 1050 ATK difference, he still stubbornly chose to enter Battle Phase and declare an attack.
Archdragon's massive form bursting through the cage charged violently toward the equally colossal Gate Guardian ahead.
"Foolish!" Lutz roared. "You think such a Fusion can challenge the strongest demon god? Pure suicide!"
Speaking thus, Gate Guardian meeting Archdragon's offensive released three-attribute power—effect activating.
"Inheriting the three demon gods' effects, Gate Guardian can also reduce attacking monsters' ATK to 0!"
Just as Amano predicted—monsters used within Eden were indeed the anime versions.
Lutz: "Ultimately, you'll still take 3750 battle damage! The ending hasn't changed at all, Amano Rei!"
If Amano had obediently waited to die last turn, this would be the same result.
The rapidly changing battle left even Karl stunned.
Currently duel turn six—his bet was also six turns. If Amano actively threw himself to death like this, had he actually still won the bet?
This guy deliberately stalled just to disgust him?
Amid the three-attribute combined special effects' coverage, Amano smiled confidently: "Is that really true?"
"ROAAR!"
This dragon roar completely triggered explosive heat waves sweeping the entire venue.
The absolute defensive wall jointly constructed by the three demon gods was actually torn apart directly by Archdragon.
"This is Fossil Dragon Archdragon's effect!"
[As long as this card exists in the Monster Zone, it cannot be destroyed by battle with monsters other than Normal Monsters, and is unaffected by effects of monsters other than this card.]
An ancient dragon Fused from vanillas wouldn't be affected by Effect Monsters. Therefore, Gate Guardian's ATK-reducing effect was directly nullified.
Watching helplessly as his prideful effect barrier was shredded by the ancient dragon, Lutz angrily rebutted.
"Even so, Gate Guardian still has higher ATK!"
"Is that really true?" Amano scored a second goal.
Simultaneously flipping his final set Trap Card.
If Archdragon's resistance effect was the key to breaking through the demon god's strongest shield—
Then this Trap Card was the trump card for snapping the demon god's strongest spear.
"Trap Card—Rare Metal Morph, activate!"
[Rare Metal Morph] [Trap Card: Discard 1 monster from your hand, then target 1 face-up monster on the field; that target's ATK becomes equal to the discarded monster's ATK.]
A Trap that reduced monster ATK by discarding hand monsters.
Fossil Dragon Archdragon and Gate Guardian's ATK difference was 1050 points.
As long as Amano's hand contained a monster exceeding 1050 ATK—
He could directly defeat the three demon gods head-on.
"C-can he? Does he have one?"
Even Kikawayu couldn't suppress his excitement.
Having fought this far, best friend naturally hoped Amano could win. An ending nobody dared imagine previously.
Except based on Kikawayu's knowledge, finding a monster exceeding 1050 ATK in Amano's trash monster deck wasn't exactly easy.
Did Amano's hand hold hope for shattering bounty hunter Lutz's strongest monster?
"1050 points! Please have it!" Finesse's internal prayer burst out involuntarily.
According to Trap Card Rare Metal Morph's effect, Amano discarded an unknown monster card from hand into the Graveyard zone.
"What I'm shattering isn't just Gate Guardian!"
After that, dual dragon roars resonated in unison. Surrounding Amano, following behind Archdragon—a pure white dragon soul's dazzling halo.
"Bounty hunter Lutz, this strike takes you along with it!"
"I discard the monster from my hand!"
"Reducing Gate Guardian's ATK by 3000 points!"
The monster Amano discarded? Naturally the king of vanillas!
Blue-Eyes White Dragon capable of shattering all opponents—Amano's Main Deck's single strongest, possessing 3000 ATK used as the combat power measurement unit.
Think measurement units were easy to earn?
That was 3000 ATK points!
[Gate Guardian] [ATK: 3750 - 3000 → 750]
After being stripped of 3000 ATK by Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Rare Metal Morph's combination, even mighty Gate Guardian became the trash Lutz despised most.
2700 ATK battling 750 ATK—final damage dealt was 1950 points.
"Shatter the trash before you who calls himself god, Fossil Dragon Archdragon!"
Using Heroes' Fusion to guide victory's direction. Ancient and pure white dragon souls interwove and overlapped, constructing Amano's finishing blow that devoured the monster and duelist ahead.
"—'Incineration: Primordial Karma Flame'!"
[Gate Guardian] destroyed
Lutz: "AAAAAAHHHH!"
Extremely strong physical feedback launched Lutz's massive body straight out of the cage arena.
[Lutz LP: 1800 - 1950 → 0]
[Duel End, Victor - Amano Rei!]
[Lutz: Life or Death Unknown]
Having won the duel, Amano mimicked a certain Hero protagonist's signature gesture, holding up two fingers toward stunned Finesse below.
"I won!"
Deceiving women? As expected, I can't do it.
[Finesse Affection +20]
***
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