"What just happened?!"
Dole was completely stunned. This had gone far beyond anything he had expected.
"It's Blast with Chain's second effect."
Having seen everything clearly from the sidelines, Crow explained in a low voice.
"If this card, while being treated as an Equip Card, is destroyed by a card effect, you target 1 card on the field and destroy it."
The surprise in Crow's eyes deepened as he looked at Dio.
He knew this card too. Normally, duelists used its second effect when it was destroyed by something like Mystical Space Typhoon, chaining it so it equipped itself to a monster first before triggering.
But using his own monster's effect to deliberately trigger the second effect of his own Equip Trap, then surgically destroy the opponent's key monster—
Yeah. This Dio guy was strong.
"Damn it..."
Dole felt a fierce sense of frustration rising inside him.
With that, his field had become dangerously fragile in an instant.
With Warrior Dai Grepher destroyed, he had not only lost one of his monsters, but The A. Forces had weakened as a result.
Marauding Captain ATK: 1600 → 1400
(With only Captain himself left as a Warrior monster on the field.)
Worse still, even if he summoned Command Knight from his hand, there was a good chance it would just get destroyed the same way.
His advantage seemed to have completely vanished.
"Battle!"
Dio gave him no more time to think and immediately entered the Battle Phase.
"Scrap Dragon, attack Marauding Captain—Scrap Roar!"
Scrap Dragon opened its jaws once more and unleashed a savage dragon's breath mixed with countless fragments of metal. The storm instantly swallowed up the Captain, whose ATK had fallen to a mere 1400.
Dole LP: 4000 → 2600
"End turn."
"My turn!"
With his Life Points suddenly slashed, Dole felt an overwhelming urgency. He all but snatched his next card from the deck.
The moment he saw what he had drawn, hope reignited in his eyes.
"It's here! Giant Rat!"
This card had an effect that let it Special Summon another monster from the Deck when it was destroyed by battle. With it, he could at least hold out for one more turn.
By now, he had completely forgotten that just a few minutes ago, he had been privately sneering at defensive tactics.
"I summon Giant Rat in Defense Position!"
A plump gray rat with alert eyes appeared on Dole's field, crouching into a defensive stance.
Giant Rat / Beast / EARTH / Level 4 / DEF 1450
Under this world's anime-style rules, monsters could be Normal Summoned in face-up Defense Position—a special summoning method that existed largely so the cards could be shown off properly.
Compared to the OCG, where Defense Position Normal Summons had to be face-down, it was indeed an advantage.
But as everyone knew, Yu-Gi-Oh! did not have any "overwhelming by sheer stats" rule against Defense Position monsters.
And at this moment, that advantage became a disadvantage.
If Dole had set it face-down instead, Dio's Trap would not have been able to activate.
"I activate my Trap Card," Dio said calmly, pressing a button on his Duel Disk. "Trap Hole. When my opponent successfully summons a monster with 1000 or more ATK, I can target that monster and destroy it."
A pitch-black pit suddenly split open in the center of Dole's field. Giant Rat, which had only just assumed its defensive stance, let out a startled squeak before falling straight in. The pit snapped shut at once.
"Ah—!"
Dole stared blankly as the monster he had pinned all his hopes on was destroyed just like that.
Giant Rat's effect only activated when it was destroyed by battle.
If it was destroyed by a card effect, there was nothing it could do.
With his field now completely empty, Dole fell into a brief daze.
And Dio, fully embracing one of the traditional arts of the anime duel world, simply seized the turn outright while his opponent was still frozen in shock and despair.
"My turn."
Dio made his declaration, drew a card, and without making any further plays, swept out his hand.
"Scrap Dragon, direct attack!"
Scrap Dragon let out one final roar, and the last metal storm crashed down upon the defenseless Dole.
Dole LP: 2600 → 0
"I won!"
Dio was delighted.
Yu-Gi-Oh! really was a fun game.
Back in the past, he had no friends and could only play against AI opponents by himself. Now that he was dueling a real person, it was far more interesting. His opponent even provided emotional feedback the whole time, though Dole's gasps and exclamations—none of which Dio could understand—sounded to him like nothing more than a series of highly expressive syllables.
If only I could understand what the other person was saying...
Once again, that thought rose in Dio's mind.
The light of the Duel Disks faded, and Scrap Dragon's projection dissolved into drifting motes of light.
Standing across from him, Dole looked at the Life Point counter that had dropped to zero and let out a regretful sigh.
So he had really crashed and burned.
The guy across from him was nowhere near someone he could compete with.
Dio had not even lost a single point of Life.
At first, Dole had thought the other man was just a lucky idiot who happened to scavenge a rare card.
Now it seemed the real idiot had probably been himself.
That fluent command of card effects, that precise control over the rhythm of the duel, and that clean, decisive finishing direct attack—
This guy was a real duelist. No question.
To reduce a duelist like this to the state of an idiot and dump him in Satellite...
The people in the city were terrifying.
Dole pulled the Synchro monster out of his deck.
It was the card they had put up as the wager before the duel:
Voltic Bicorn.
Though it pained him, a bet was a bet.
"Here. It's yours."
Using a motion like he was throwing a knife, Dole flicked the card toward Dio.
Dio panicked a little. He had not expected the other man to just throw it at him.
But his body reacted faster than his mind. With a slight movement of his hand, he neatly caught the spinning card between his index and middle fingers, as if he had practiced it countless times before.
Even he was a little surprised.
Lucky me.
Dole, meanwhile, had only one thought:
Damn, that's cool.
He had originally wanted to make the other guy at least embarrass himself a little.
But he had never expected him to catch it too.
Watching Dio stand there with that slightly blank expression after naturally snatching the card out of the air, the last trace of Dole's unwillingness finally disappeared.
Maybe it was better for Voltic Bicorn to go with a duelist like this.
He had kept that card for nearly two years, yet had never once successfully summoned it in a real duel. At the very least, in the hands of a stronger owner, it might finally get the chance to soar across a true battlefield.
Dio put away his ramshackle Duel Disk and carefully slid Voltic Bicorn into his deck alongside Scrap Dragon.
Just then, he heard a rhythmic sound coming from nearby.
Clapping.
He turned in confusion and saw Crow applauding.
There was clear admiration on Crow's face. When Dio looked over, Crow stopped clapping and said with a smile,
"As expected—you're amazing."
Dio: "..."
He could not understand a single word.
But he could tell it was praise, so he replied with a polite smile.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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