<Sakuretsu Armor>, the “god card” of the Yu-Gi-Oh!
world that has never successfully resolved and whose users have all lost their matches, its memes are endlessly mocked by duelists in every imaginable way.
Because of that, Yugi never even thought it would actually go through.
His plan was to use this card to bait out countermeasures like Cyclone cards or disruption cards like <Forbidden Lance>.
Even the spectators didn’t believe Ota Yukiko would fall for such a simple trap.
Everyone’s eyes widened, waiting to see Sakuretsu fail to activate.
Yet to their shock, she didn’t move at all, allowing Paradox Dragon to be blown to pieces just like that.
“D*mn, can you really be this bad?!
Wait…” Yugi narrowed his eyes.
“She did this on purpose.
Could it be…”
“If a “Malefic” monster on my field is destroyed, I can pay half my Life Points to activate this effect, Special Summon this monster from my hand or Graveyard!”
Ota Yukiko spread her arms wide, her face twisted into exaggerated theatrics.
“O dragon that gives form to hatred and rage, feast upon the lifeblood of my lineage and be born…
<Malefic Truth Dragon>!”
Ota Yukiko, LP 4000 -> 2000
From the shattered remains of <Paradox Dragon> burst forth an earthen-yellow radiance.
The entire Malefic space began to quake violently as raging winds and rumbling thunder filled the surroundings.
Enormous wings unfurled, and a colossal dragon clad in machinery and scales emerged, letting out a world-shaking roar.
“ROAR———!”
<Malefic Truth Dragon>, ATK 5000
“5000 ATK?!”
“My god…
it even surpasses <Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon>.”
“If a freshman gets hit by something like that, they’d probably be bedridden for half a year.”
“……”
“If you’d behaved and played a little smarter, you might’ve kept your life.
Now all that’s left is to wail in front of <Truth Dragon> and be crushed!” Ota Yukiko clenched her fist.
“<Malefic Truth Dragon>, continue the attack on <Venus>!”
She was even preparing to activate <Concentrating Current> to boost <Truth Dragon>’s ATK to 10,000, completely pulverizing the little girl who dared stand before her.
Even though there was no personal grudge between them, the already deranged Ota Yukiko reveled in the sound of weaklings screaming in despair.
“Elsie!” Jounouchi Mai couldn’t help but leap to her feet in the stands.
Ota Yukiko eagerly searched Elsie’s face for signs of begging, regret, fear, and trembling.
Yet the girl who had been shivering during the handshake now showed no fear at all, and even without Yugi’s guidance, she proactively pressed the button on her Duel Disk.
“Face-down card open!
I activate another Trap Card, <Shift>!” Get faster updates on g.com.
This was also a hereditary card passed down within the Mutou family.
Its effect wasn’t complicated, so Elsie handled it with ease.
“It can only be activated when one of my monsters becomes the target of an opponent’s Spell or Trap effect, or the target of a monster’s attack.
I can transfer that target to another monster I control!”
Yugi pointed forward.
“I’m transferring the attack target of your Paradox Dragon to <Lemon Magician Girl>!”
“When <Lemon Magician Girl> is selected as an attack target, I can activate her effect to Special Summon a Spellcaster-type monster from my hand with its effects negated!
After that, the attack target is transferred to the Special Summoned monster, and the attacking monster’s ATK becomes half!”
“Come forth, <Dark Magician Girl>!”
Golden long hair, adorable armor woven from pink and deep blue, the original “first waifu” of countless duelists made her dazzling entrance.
<Dark Magician Girl>, DEF 1700
<Malefic Truth Dragon>, ATK 5000 -> 2500
This was already the strongest monster Elsie could summon.
Unfortunately, she still couldn’t match <Truth Dragon> even after its attack was halved, and was mercilessly crushed.
However, although Truth Dragon’s ATK was still more than enough to shatter <Dark Magician Girl>, it didn’t have piercing damage.
Simply destroying a Defense Position monster would not reduce Life Points.
“You dare play tricks on me.” Ota Yukiko’s cheeks twitched several times.
Clearly, she was displeased at failing to finish the duel and missing the chance to hear the weak duelist on the other side scream in agony.
“I set one card.
Turn end!”
She set <Concentrating Current> face-down, planning that if Elsie dared to attack next turn, the sudden surge in ATK would teach her a harsh lesson.
“My turn, draw!”
When Elsie saw the card in her hand, her expression turned into a mix of joy and worry.
The joy was that the god card <Harpie’s Feather Duster>, which could wipe out all of the opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards at once, had finally come into her hand.
The worry was that her mental power was far from sufficient to activate it.
Seeing this card, the corner of Yugi’s mouth lifted slightly, but he didn’t act immediately.
Right now, he still needed one more turn to set things up.
“Set those two cards.”
“Okay!”
Elsie nodded obediently.
“I set two cards.
Turn end.”
“The gap between them is too big. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Even with halved ATK, she still can’t counterattack?”
“Well, she’s a Level 7 duelist after all.”
“With Ota Yukiko’s personality, she’ll probably push the ATK to the absolute limit in one go…
Will that Mutou family girl be okay?”
“………….”
At this moment, the tide was quietly shifting.
Although no one truly believed Elsie could win, some people had already begun to support her in their hearts.
After all, Ota Yukiko’s behavior was simply too deranged, while the little girl’s courage and composure when facing Truth Dragon just now had earned the respect of many duelists.
They asked themselves honestly, if they were in her place, they wouldn’t have done any better.
They would probably have been scared stiff by Truth Dragon’s overwhelming presence, collapsing to the ground, unable to move.
This was also the glimmer Yugi had discovered during his special training with Elsie over the past few days.
Although she was timid by nature and lacking in mental strength, at the critical moment between victory and defeat, she could completely overturn her usual self, maintaining absolute calm and relying on instinct to make plays she would never be able to imagine in ordinary circumstances.
In other words, her instincts as a duelist were actually very sharp.
It was just that, like the rookies at the beginning of DM, she hadn’t yet properly honed her blade or fully revealed her talent.
“My turn, draw!”
Ota Yukiko didn’t even activate the effect of <Malefic World>, instead directly slamming the drawn card onto the field.
“Spell Card <Pot of Greed>!
Draw two cards!”
“Next, I use the Spell Card <Malefic Selector>, banishing <Parallel Gear> and <Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon> from my Graveyard to add <Paradox Gear> and <Malefic Paradigm Dragon> to my hand!”
“I Normal Summon <Paradox Gear> and activate its effect to Special Summon <Parallel Gear> from my Deck, then add <Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon> to my hand!”
This time, she didn’t use <Parallel Gear> and <Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon> as materials again, but chose <Paradigm Dragon> instead.
“I use the Level 2 <Parallel Gear> to tune with the Level 10 <Malefic Paradigm Dragon>!
Synchro Summon———–”
“Come forth!
Level 12, <Battlewasp – Ballista the Armageddon>!”
A violent gale erupted as a mechanically sealed entity wielding an enormous crossbow emerged from a pillar of light.
<Battlewasp – Ballista the Armageddon>, ATK 3000
“Well, after all, she did at least go from Level 5 to Level 7.
It’s only natural that some new monsters would show up.”
Both <Ballista> and <Truth Dragon> were monsters that hadn’t appeared in the duel between Ota Yukiko and Kaiba Ayatsuki.
<Truth Dragon> was one thing, but this monster had absolutely nothing to do with the Malefic deck.
It had an on-summon effect, but that effect was related to Insect-type monsters.
Since there were no Insect-type monsters in Ota Yukiko’s Graveyard, she chose not to activate it.
The reason she summoned it was simply because <Ballista> had a piercing damage effect, able to deal damage even when attacking monsters in Defense Position.
“Now, you won’t be able to play clever tricks anymore.”