Chapter 207: Dragon Assault! A History Both Twisted and Repeated
The Dragon Mark's heat spread up through Yusei Fudo's wrist and into his arm. For someone who had lived with the mark since he was a teenager, that sensation was not new. He watched Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode land on the track without any particular surprise.
The surprise belonged to the people who had watched the original story unfold on a screen.
Amano Rei and Rin Seiya were the only ones in this Chronicle who had done that. To everyone else here, Jack simply had a new card.
At the back of the Team 5D's prep area, Jaden Yuki's easy grin had vanished. He turned to the man beside him with an expression that Kikawayu had never seen on his face before, something quiet and serious that did not belong to the careless upperclassman he had seemed to be for most of the day.
"Kaiba." Jaden's voice was level. "Does this situation mean what I think it means?"
Kaiba Seto had been serious since the duel began. His answer came without hesitation.
"So it has come. This duel has been designated as one of the anchor points by the future."
Kaiba Chiaki heard the words "anchor point" and "the future" and did not understand the exchange at all. But she had come here from three thousand years ahead of this moment, and those particular words were not ones she could afford to let slide past her.
Kikawayu cut in quickly, his voice carrying the urgency of someone who had been watching the track and doing the arithmetic. "Regardless of all that, the Synchro Monster version of Scar-Red Nova Dragon just left the field. While it was there, Jack took zero effect damage. Now that Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode is in its place, that immunity is gone. If Amano has any Speed Spell at all right now, he can pay counters and activate Speed World 2's effect to deal eight hundred damage directly."
Jack Atlas was already moving.
"You think I didn't see that coming, Amano Rei?"
Every duelist who had put in the hours that Jack had put in eventually stopped needing to be told what was dangerous. He had seen the kill line open the moment Scar-Red Nova Dragon was tributed. He had the answer ready.
"Before Scar-Red Nova Dragon and Majestic Shooting Star Dragon both vanish from the field, my second set trap activates!"
The face-down he flipped was the card he had been holding back for exactly this moment.
"Trap card: Great Soul!"
The effect was simple and devastating in its timing. As long as a Dragon-type Synchro Monster existed on the field, Jack could Special Summon up to two Resonator monsters or Level 1 Dragon-type monsters directly from his deck. Scar-Red Nova Dragon, the Synchro version, was still in the process of leaving. It was close enough.
"I Special Summon Crimson Resonator and Flare Resonator from my deck, both in Defense Position!"
Two small figures took shape alongside Jack's D-Wheel on the track. The moment Flare Resonator landed on the field, it raised the tuning fork it carried and sounded it.
"Flare Resonator's effect activates when Special Summoned. I select one monster on the field as a target and restore LP equal to that monster's attack points!"
The target was obvious. Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode stood at four thousand attack points.
Jack Atlas LP: 500 to 4500.
In the stands, Rin Seiya exhaled slowly. "He didn't just climb out of Speed World 2's kill range. He recovered to four thousand five hundred. That's higher than Blue-Eyes."
She had watched enough of the original series to know what Jack was capable of, but this was something else. This version of Jack Atlas, with the full power of the Crimson Dragon's mark behind him, was pulling out cards and combinations that had never existed in the episodes she had studied.
"Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode is troublesome enough on its own," Amano said, watching the field reset itself around him. "And now there's this too."
He was in a clean field state. With Majestic Shooting Star Dragon still banished until End Phase as a result of its own counter-effect, he had nothing in front of him.
But he was not going to give Jack the empty turn.
"I Normal Summon Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice in Defense Position. I set two cards face-down. Turn end."
Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice, Eve's card form, crouched on the racing track in Defense Position. Two thousand one hundred defense points. She kept pace with Amano's D-Wheel through the glowing starlight field of Speed World 2, water-blue magic trailing off her feet as she matched the speed of the race.
Eve stared up at the two titans circling each other above the track. "Is this seriously a battle I have any business being in?"
At the close of Amano's turn, the banishment window ended. Majestic Shooting Star Dragon returned from wherever it had been holding, starlight and all, and settled back into position above the track. Across from it, Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode burned like something that had never learned to stop.
The two dragons regarded each other from opposite ends of the sky.
The turn changed.
"My turn! Draw!"
Speed Counters: 5 to 6.
Jack looked at the card he had drawn. The corners of his mouth pulled up into a smile that had no room for doubt in it.
"This is it. The king's battle ends here with good fortune on his side."
He threw the Speed Spell into his Duel Disk without ceremony.
"Speed Spell: Synchro Removal!"
The effect was elegant in its simplicity. With two or more Speed Counters, take control of one of the opponent's Synchro Monsters until End Phase. Two counters was nothing. The target could only be one card.
The wind from the effect swept toward Amano's field and toward the dragon holding the sky above it.
Losing Majestic Shooting Star Dragon right now would end the duel immediately.
Amano did not wait.
"I activate Majestic Shooting Star Dragon's effect, banishing it from the field until End Phase to negate your activation!"
"And now it's my turn to hit back, Amano Rei!" Jack thrust his arm toward the blazing shape above his own D-Wheel. "Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode activates its effect!"
The armored dragon surged forward with a force that displaced the air across the entire track. The weight of its charge, all that compressed steel and fire, generated a shockwave that swept outward from the center of the course.
When the opponent activated a card or effect, Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode could banish itself until End Phase and remove a number of the opponent's cards equal to the number of Tuners in Jack's Graveyard.
Jack had two Tuners there.
This time the positions were reversed. Majestic Shooting Star Dragon had been about to slip away into its banishment on its own terms. Instead it found Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode's claws closing around it in the last instant, the armored dragon's surface heat intense enough to scatter the stardust that trailed off Majestic Shooting Star Dragon's wings.
Jack pointed across the track.
"I banish Majestic Shooting Star Dragon and one of your face-down cards!"
Eve looked at the card being selected beside Amano's D-Wheel.
"Well. At least it's not me."
The difference in what Jack chose to banish and what he left alone said everything about how he read the board. In his assessment, one of Amano's set cards was a bigger threat than a monster with zero attack points and twenty-one hundred defense.
Majestic Shooting Star Dragon was swept from the field.
The trap card, Attack Invulnerability, was swept from the field.
Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode banished itself alongside them.
The difference was that Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode would return at End Phase. Majestic Shooting Star Dragon, removed by an opponent's effect rather than its own, would not.
The announcer's voice cracked halfway through the sentence. "Again, again, again! Both aces have vanished simultaneously! I have never in my life called a duel this close!"
Amano watched the field clear itself out and made a quiet assessment.
"The fact that Jack didn't banish Eve is his mistake," he said, addressing the card form crouched on the track beside him. "Now he has to figure out how to get through twenty-one hundred defense with what he has left."
Eve sitting in Defense Position was not threatening on her own. She could not touch Jack's Resonators, and she certainly could not threaten Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode whenever it came back. But as a wall she did her job. Crimson Resonator had three hundred defense. Flare Resonator had two hundred. Neither of them could break through on their own. If Jack had nothing else, the two small monsters would run directly into her and accomplish nothing, leaving Amano's remaining one thousand LP untouched.
Jack had clearly noticed the same thing, because he reached into his hand and put his next card down without pause.
"Speed Spell: Untuned Summon. With four or more Speed Counters, I add one Level 4 non-Tuner from my deck to my hand."
The card slid in from the deck. Jack Normal Summoned it immediately.
"Gun Fiend, Attack Position!"
A Level 4 Fiend-type monster took shape beside the Fortune Wheel, twin pistols raised. One thousand six hundred attack points. Still not enough on its own to crack Eve's defense, but that was not the plan.
Jack turned toward the two Resonators already on the field, and toward the dragon standing beside them.
"I tune Level 2 Flare Resonator with Level 4 Gun Fiend!"
The Synchro ring opened and the two monsters dissolved into it together, four stars ascending through the arc. A Level 6 Synchro arose from the other side.
"Burning dragon that climbs toward higher peaks, ascend through the escalating flame! Synchro Summon! Level 6: Red Rising Dragon!"
Red Rising Dragon erupted from the Synchro column trailing fire that did not go out when the column collapsed. Two thousand one hundred attack points, exactly equal to Eve's defense. Not quite enough to break through.
Amano raised his voice across the gap between their D-Wheels. "Still not enough, Jack Atlas! Where are the Synchro summons you're so proud of? Where's the attack power?"
Kikawayu's hands tightened on the railing. "What is he doing? He keeps pushing Jack. If Eve's defense gets cleared, things get very bad very fast."
"Don't bother telling me twice," Jack shot back, his voice carrying no uncertainty at all. "I'll incinerate the only wall you have left with a soul that burns hotter than anything you've seen! Crimson Resonator's effect activates!"
The condition was specific: while only Red Rising Dragon and Crimson Resonator occupied Jack's side of the field, he could Special Summon up to two Resonator monsters from hand or deck in Attack Position.
"I Special Summon Flare Resonator and Creation Resonator from my deck!"
Two more monsters hit the field. Flare Resonator arrived at six hundred attack points and immediately sounded its tuning fork toward Red Rising Dragon.
"Flare Resonator's effect on Special Summon. I restore LP equal to one monster's attack points. Red Rising Dragon, two thousand one hundred!"
Jack Atlas LP: 4500 to 6600.
"Still not enough!" Amano's voice did not waver. "You raised your LP, fine. What about your Synchro summons? You haven't shown me anything!"
Kikawayu stared at him.
Jack Atlas threw his head back and roared.
"Don't need you to tell me! I'll shatter your wall with a soul that burns at its absolute limit! I tune Level 3 Creation Resonator with Level 6 Red Rising Dragon!"
The second Synchro ring ignited. Three stars and six stars combined, and the column that rose from the merge was wider and hotter than anything that had come before it. The flame that wrapped Red Rising Dragon as it fed into the ring did not vanish. It became the fuel for what came next.
"Demon lord unleashed from the darkness of the abyss! Let all of this fury detonate! Synchro Summon! Level 9!"
"Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss!!"
The dragon that came through was not the same category of monster as anything that had been on the track before it. Three thousand two hundred attack points, and a Quick Effect that rendered face-up cards meaningless the moment they were activated. Once per turn, on either player's turn, Jack could negate the effects of any face-up card on Amano's field until End Phase. Any trap Amano flipped would be silenced before it resolved.
The numbers were not complicated. Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss cleared Eve with a thousand and one hundred to spare. After that, Flare Resonator and Crimson Resonator together would add another twelve hundred at minimum, enough to cover the gap between one thousand LP and zero.
Jack had six thousand six hundred LP. He had a board that would end this turn. He had a Quick Effect that shut down every defensive option Amano had left.
"When I Synchro Summoned Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss, your defeat was already decided, Amano Rei!"
The announcer's voice was nearly incoherent. "Amano's monster has been overpowered, his face-down cards are suppressed, there's nowhere left to turn! Is the match over? Is the winner Jack Atlas?!"
In the Team 5D's prep area, the math was the same for everyone watching. Jack ran the attack and closed out Amano. He would enter his duel against Jaden with sixty-six hundred LP, Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss still in play, and Scar-Red Nova Dragon, Assault Mode returning at End Phase to join it.
That was the outcome everyone in the room was looking at.
Amano said, "That's enough."
Jack's smile broadened without any effort. "Finally ready to admit it, Amano Rei! From this day forward there is only one King, and that King is me, Jack Atlas!"
"No." Amano's D-Wheel did not slow. "When I said 'enough,' I wasn't talking about your attack points."
He raised one card from his hand and held it up against the open sky above the track.
This turn, Jack Atlas had Normal Summoned Gun Fiend. He had Synchro Summoned Red Rising Dragon. He had Special Summoned Flare Resonator and Creation Resonator via Crimson Resonator's effect. He had Synchro Summoned Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss.
Five summons.
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss could negate any face-up card on the field. A card in the hand was not face-up.
"I activate Nibiru, the Primal Being from my hand!"
The sky above the track went dark. Not gradually, the way a cloud crosses the sun, but all at once, as if someone had switched off the light. The announcer noticed before he could stop himself and lost all professional composure on the spot.
"A meteor! There's a meteor incoming! That is a meteor falling from the sky!!"
Ten thousand spectators looked up in the same instant. Above the track, above the stadium, above the district, something vast and orange was descending.
At the back of the prep area, Jaden let out a breathless laugh.
Kaiba Seto did not laugh. He stared at the meteor dropping toward the track and felt the memory of a Kaiba Corporation rooftop from thirty years ago land in his chest with the same weight it always did.
That day too, he had been on the verge of ending it. He had summoned his fifth monster. He had been completely certain.
"The same battle all over again, Amano Rei." His voice was low enough that only Jaden could hear it. "A fight only you could fight like this. So you really did come back."
He remembered every word. The way the sky had gone red. The way the card had come off the deck. The way his certainty had meant nothing.
On the track below, Amano's voice carried everything the card deserved.
"I'll tribute Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss along with every monster on the field! Take this, Jack Atlas!"
The meteorite struck.
"Planet Reconstruction! All Life Returns to Nothing!!"
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss was swept from the field.
Flare Resonator was swept from the field.
Crimson Resonator was swept from the field.
Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice was swept from the field.
Nibiru, the Primal Being took the place of everything it had consumed, and on Jack Atlas's side of the track, a single Primal Being Token formed from the combined wreckage of every monster that had been on the field, carrying their attack and defense values added together into one enormous, unstable mass.
The dust had not settled yet. The duel was still going.
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