The words had barely left the Dark Ritual Officiant’s mouth when a visible, dark crimson energy began draining out of his body, flowing into the pale, parasol-holding girl on the field.
The hooded man visibly withered, while at the same time, a surge of crimson vitality swelled around the girl on the field, spilling outward until it looked almost solid enough to touch.
It really did look like the duelist’s very life was being drained straight into his monster.
“Vampire Fraulein’s effect: whenever one of my Zombie-Type monsters battles an opponent’s monster, I can pay Life Points in multiples of 100 to raise that monster’s ATK and DEF by the amount paid!” the Dark Ritual Officiant declared.
“I’ll pay 1000 Life Points, converting it into ATK for Undead Werewolf!” [Dark Ritual Officiant, LP 4000 → LP 3000] [Undead Werewolf, ATK 1200 → ATK 2200] The newly buffed werewolf instantly surpassed Assault Pterosaur, lunging forward to pin the dragon down as it tried to flee, tearing it savagely to pieces.
[Yushin, LP 4000 → LP 3600] The shockwave from the monster battle’s damage swept clean over Yushin, but the aftershock didn’t dissipate.
It surged onward and struck one of the cards still left in his hand.
The card instantly dissolved into golden motes of light and scattered away.
Yushin said, “A Trap effect?” “Correct.
I activated this Trap the instant my attack went through,” the Dark Ritual Officiant said smugly, pointing at his own back row.
“The Continuous Trap, Highwayman Goblin!
“Whenever a monster I control deals battle damage to my opponent, they’re forced to randomly discard one card from their hand!” Yu-Gi-Oh!
was a game that put enormous weight on card advantage; a single card’s difference could flip the entire outcome of a duel.
Because of that, hand-disruption tactics targeting an opponent’s hand had always ranked among the most brutally effective strategies in the game, right from its earliest days.
“Heh.
With Vampire Fraulein on the field now, my monsters are already standing on unshakable ground,” the Dark Ritual Officiant sneered.
“My turn’s over.” That’s it?
Yushin raised an eyebrow.
The man’s Vampire Fraulein was still sitting in Defense Position; he hadn’t chosen to flip her into Attack Position.
He was probably factoring in that Vampire Fraulein’s ATK was only 600, and switching her over recklessly would leave her as an easy opening to break through next turn.
Besides, Vampire Fraulein’s ATK-boosting effect could only trigger when one of his Zombie-Type monsters actually battled an opponent’s monster, meaning a direct attack from her alone could only ever add a plain 600 points of damage, nothing more.
Clearly, the hooded man across from him had judged that a mere extra 600 damage wasn’t worth turning his low-ATK Lady into a liability by switching her to Attack Position.
But if it had been up to Yushin, he figured he would have switched Vampire Fraulein to Attack Position and pushed the extra damage through instead.
The reasoning was simple: one more instance of damage meant Highwayman Goblin’s effect could strip away one more card from the opponent’s hand.
Card disruption like that was worth a lot more than a little inconsequential Life Point damage.
But it was clear across every generation of the Yu-Gi-Oh!
anime that duelists there just didn’t share real-world players’ obsession with card advantage the way actual competitive players did.
Especially the background duelists in the Satellite, most of whom treated Life Points, a stat competitive players tended to shrug off entirely, as more important than hand resources.
It was one more small detail that reflected the gap in game sense between the two of them.
Of course, that difference really came down to the dueling environment itself.
In real competitive play, even a single extra card in hand could snowball into an overwhelming advantage; a one-card resource gap could mean the difference between night and day.
But dueling in the Satellite was a slow-paced environment.
Duelists often had plenty of dead cards clogging their hand that they had no use for in the moment, and an opening hand of six cards could easily last several turns without ever getting used up.
So a lot of the time, from the local duelists’ point of view, one card’s worth of hand advantage genuinely might not feel as concrete or useful as just chipping away a bit more Life Point damage instead.
Take just now, for example: the man across from him looked like he’d stripped a card from Yushin’s hand, but really, all he’d done was help clear out a dead card that had been sitting uselessly in Yushin’s hand since the very start of the duel.
“My turn, draw.” Yushin drew, then swept a hand out and flipped his back row wide open.
“Activate the set card, Continuous Trap, Legitimate Bloodline!
“This card lets me choose one Normal Monster in my Graveyard and Special Summon it in Attack Position!” The Dark Ritual Officiant frowned.
“A Normal Monster?
But what would even be in your Graveyard…” “Oh, there’s definitely something there.” Yushin gave a faint smile.
“The very card your Highwayman Goblin just discarded from my hand a second ago.
Rise, my love…
ah, wait, no, my ace— “—Summoned Skull!” Lightning crackled, thunder rolled down.
The skeletal demon king descended from black clouds split by rolling thunder.
[Summoned Skull, ATK 2500] The Dark Ritual Officiant glared daggers at his own traitorous goblin.
“Of all the cards it could have discarded, it had to be that one…” But he followed it with another cold laugh.
“Sure, you’ve summoned yourself a high-Level monster, but with my Vampire Fraulein standing in your way, do you actually dare attack?” Vampire Fraulein could raise a monster’s ATK by paying Life Points.
If Yushin attacked Undead Werewolf with Summoned Skull, the Dark Ritual Officiant only needed to pay 1400 Life Points, and Yushin’s hard-won ace would end up getting counter-killed by Undead Werewolf instead.
Yushin already had a plan of his own.
“Activate the Spell Card, Whispering Forest.
This card lets me flip one face-up monster on my opponent’s field into face-down Defense Position.” The Dark Ritual Officiant’s expression shifted.
“What?!” Yushin said, “I’m flipping Vampire Fraulein into face-down Defense Position.” The vampire noblewoman lowered her eyelids, as if she’d suddenly let out a yawn.
Then she tipped down the brim of her parasol, lowered her head, and reverted back into a face-down card, as if drifting off into a deep sleep.
Yushin said, “A monster flipped face-down like that can’t activate its effects, you know.” “Tch,” the Dark Ritual Officiant muttered.
“I can’t believe you actually thought of a counter like that…
But the instant you activated that Spell Card, my Continuous Spell, Spell Absorption, triggered too.
I recover 500 Life Points.” [Dark Ritual Officiant, LP 3000 → LP 3500] Yushin said, “Summoned Skull, attack Undead Werewolf.
Descending Thunder!” The demon’s crackling electricity gathered into a bolt of heavenly thunder and came crashing down, blasting the werewolf into scattered fragments.
[Dark Ritual Officiant, LP 3500 → LP 2200] The shock of the lightning brought with it the searing pain of the Shadow Game.
The Dark Ritual Officiant gritted his teeth against the damage, then pressed on.
“But werewolves don’t die so easily.
When Undead Werewolf is destroyed by battle, I can Special Summon a monster with the same name from my Deck, with its ATK raised by 500!” A streak of golden light shot out of his Deck, taking shape as a fresh Undead Werewolf descending onto the field.
[Undead Werewolf, ATK 1200 → ATK 1700] The Dark Ritual Officiant wore a smug expression.
“Undead monsters are stubborn things.
Whatever doesn’t kill them only makes them stronger.” Yushin said, “I’ll set one card.
Turn end.”