“My turn—draw!” The Dark Ritual Priest added the card he had drawn to his hand, then removed Zombie Werewolf from his field and sent it to the Graveyard.
“I Tribute Zombie Werewolf!
Tribute Summon—Vampire Lord!” An aristocratic vampire emerged from the darkness, wrapped in a long cloak and carrying himself with the cold dignity of an ancient noble.
[Vampire Lord — ATK: 2000] Vampire Lord was one of the earliest “Vampire” monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh!
history and had even been used by Seto Kaiba in the original anime.
In the ancient days of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh!, it had been an extremely popular high-Level monster.
It only required one Tribute to summon, and its ability to return from the Graveyard after being destroyed by an opponent’s card effect made it particularly resilient in an era dominated by powerful removal Traps.
As unbelievable as it sounded now, this thoroughly ordinary-looking Vampire Lord had even spent time on the Forbidden List during the very first Yu-Gi-Oh!
World Championship.
And this had been a tournament where future terrors such as Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Change of Heart, Snatch Steal, and the infamous hand-destruction cards hadn’t all been forbidden.
Yet somehow, poor Vampire Lord had been the one thrown into solitary confinement.
If the monster himself had known about it, he probably would have wanted to ask, ‘What the hell did I do to deserve that?’ “Next, I Flip Summon the Set Vampire Fraulein in Attack Position!” The pale vampire noblewoman rose from her card once again and opened her black parasol.
[Vampire Fraulein — ATK: 600] “Your little trick only protected you for one turn,” the Dark Ritual Priest said.
“It won’t change the outcome.
Vampire Lord, attack Summoned Skull!” What he intended to do next was obvious.
He would use Vampire Fraulein’s effect to strengthen Vampire Lord enough to destroy Summoned Skull, then follow up with a direct attack from Fraulein.
If both attacks connected, Yusuke would lose a substantial amount of Life Points.
But that wasn’t even the real problem.
Two separate instances of battle damage would trigger Robbin’ Goblin twice, stripping away the rest of Yusuke’s hand.
In old-school Yu-Gi-Oh!, card advantage was everything.
Losing your entire hand meant losing your options, which could be far more dangerous than having your Life Points reduced to the brink.
Unfortunately for the Dark Ritual Priest…
“I activate my Set card.” Yusuke pressed a button on his Duel Disk.
“Trap Card—Fuhma Wave!” The Dark Ritual Priest blinked.
“Fuhma Wave?” What was that supposed to be?
He’d never even heard of it.
It sounded exactly like the sort of obscure, useless Trap someone would dig out of a garbage heap in Satellite.
“Fuhma Wave lets me target one face-up monster on the field, then destroy another monster with the same Attribute but a different name.” The Dark Ritual Priest sneered.
A Trap with that many restrictions?
As expected, it was garbage— Wait.
His expression suddenly froze.
“Your Vampire Lord and Vampire Fraulein are both DARK monsters,” Yusuke said with a smile, “and they obviously don’t share the same name.” A beam of energy erupted from the Trap Card.
“So I’ll destroy Vampire Fraulein!” Fraulein looked almost lazily resigned to her fate.
Still maintaining her aristocratic composure, she vanished gracefully into the resulting explosion.
Because of its awkward activation conditions, Fuhma Wave was arguably less reliable than something as straightforward as Sakuretsu Armor.
Still, it was a Trap capable of destroying a monster, which already made it reasonably good by Satellite standards.
Naturally, the penniless Fujishiro Yusuke had never owned anything like it.
This particular card had been generously sponsored by Itagaki of the Fang Gang.
Entirely voluntarily, of course.
“Fraulein may be gone,” Yusuke continued, “but you already declared an attack.” The Dark Ritual Priest’s eyes widened.
“W-Wait!
The number of monsters on the field changed, so a Replay occurs!
I’ll cancel the attack—” Too late.
Vampire Lord ignored him completely and continued charging toward Summoned Skull.
The skeletal fiend raised one enormous hand, golden lightning crackling around its claws, and brought it down with enough force to blast Vampire Lord apart.
[Dark Ritual Priest — LP: 2200 → 1700] Yusuke gave him a flat look.
“Do you actually know how to Duel?” The Dark Ritual Priest froze.
“A Replay only happens when the number of monsters on your opponent’s field changes during an attack,” Yusuke explained.
“The monster that disappeared was on your own field.
Why would that let you take back your attack declaration?” The man stared blankly at him.
“Ah…
i-is that how it works?” Yusuke shook his head.
“You’re a Dark Ritual Priest, so I’m guessing you’re fairly high-ranking in your Order, right?
If this is the level of Dueling knowledge your senior members have, I don’t like your organization’s chances.” The Dark Ritual Priest’s face flushed with anger.
“S-Shut up!
I don’t need you teaching me how to Duel!” He tried to sound furious, but there wasn’t nearly as much force behind his voice as before.
And everyone knew that in an anime-style Duel, momentum mattered.
Once a duelist lost his nerve, even his cards seemed to lose confidence with him.
The moment someone started subconsciously believing they couldn’t win, the odds of drawing a complete brick seemed to rise dramatically.
“I Set two cards,” the Dark Ritual Priest muttered, “and end my turn.” “My turn—draw.” Vampire Lord had been destroyed by Summoned Skull, while Vampire Fraulein had fallen to Fuhma Wave.
The Dark Ritual Priest’s Monster Zones were now completely empty.
“Summoned Skull,” Yusuke ordered, “direct attack!” The priest had only 1700 Life Points remaining.
If this attack connected, the Duel would end immediately.
But the man wasn’t ready to give up.
“I activate my Set card—Draining Shield!” A face-down card flipped open.
A shimmering barrier of rainbow-colored water spread across the priest’s field just as Summoned Skull unleashed its Lightning Strike.
The thunder crashed into the watery shield, only for every bit of its energy to be absorbed and transformed into a warm current that flowed back into the Dark Ritual Priest.
“Draining Shield negates your monster’s attack, then restores my Life Points by an amount equal to that monster’s ATK!” [Dark Ritual Priest — LP: 1700 → 4200] Having recovered an enormous chunk of Life Points in one move, the hooded man burst into laughter.
“What a shame!
If that attack had gone through, I would’ve lost.
Must be frustrating to come that close only to fail, isn’t it?
Hahaha—” Yusuke completely ignored the taunting.
His eyes were fixed on the fading image of the Trap Card.
Draining Shield.
Compared with all the bizarre, hyper-specific Traps circulating around Satellite, a card that could completely stop an attack while restoring a huge amount of Life Points stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Yusuke’s expression could be summed up in three words.
‘I want it.’ Even he found his current situation a little pathetic.
He had come from an era of Yu-Gi-Oh!
where a single card could generate an entire board’s worth of resources, yet now he had fallen so far that merely seeing a copy of Draining Shield was enough to make his blood run hot with desire.
That alone said everything about how desperately poor his current card pool was.
The Dark Ritual Priest was halfway through his triumphant laughter when he noticed Yusuke wasn’t reacting.
Then he saw that unmistakable look of hunger directed at his Trap Card.
His face darkened.
‘Are you here to Duel me or rob me?’ They weren’t even finished yet, and this bastard was already looking at his cards like he’d decided which ones he was taking home afterward.
Was that really necessary?
“I Set one card and end my turn,” Yusuke said.
The Dark Ritual Priest drew with a scowl.
“My turn—draw!” Enough was enough.
This brat was infuriating.
It was time to put him in his place.
“I activate my Set card!
Trap Card—Haunted Shrine!” One of the priest’s face-down cards flipped open.
“If I control no monsters, Haunted Shrine allows me to target a Zombie monster in my Graveyard and Special Summon it!” The Dark Ritual Priest pulled a Monster Card from his Graveyard.
“And the monster I revive is this one!” A dark vortex opened across the ground.
From within it emerged the sinister laughter of an ancient vampire nobleman as a familiar figure rose from the darkness.
“Return from the Graveyard—Vampire Lord!”