Yusuke quickly looked over the six cards in his opening hand.
There was only one monster with enough ATK to beat Ryan’s Koumori Dragon: Summoned Skull, a Normal Monster boasting an impressive 2500 ATK.
Judging by the rest of the cards he had seen, it was probably the ace of this entire Deck.
Unfortunately, Summoned Skull was Level 6.
Under the rules of Duel Monsters, Level 1 through 4 monsters could be Normal Summoned directly, while Level 5 and 6 monsters required one Tribute.
Since each player normally only received one Normal Summon or Set per turn, having a powerful high-Level monster in his hand did Yusuke no good right now.
He simply didn’t have a monster on the field to Tribute for it.
With no other useful plays available, he selected two cards from his hand.
“I Set one monster in face-down Defense Position, then Set one card in my Spell & Trap Zone.
That’s it for my turn.” A face-down Defense Position monster revealed nothing to the opponent unless it was flipped face-up, usually when attacked.
Ryan clearly wasn’t concerned.
“A Deck belonging to Satellite trash is exactly what I expected.
All you can do is hide behind a monster and wait to be beaten.” It was only a passing insult, but one word immediately caught Yusuke’s attention.
‘Satellite?’ He remembered that Yu-Gi-Oh!
5D’s took place in New Domino City, which included an impoverished district known as Satellite.
‘Did I end up in the world of 5D’s?’ “Is this New Domino City?” Yusuke asked.
Ryan didn’t even bother answering.
As far as he was concerned, there was nothing here worth paying attention to except the Duel.
“My turn—draw!” Ryan immediately revealed the card he had drawn.
“I Normal Summon Assault Wyvern!” [Assault Wyvern — ATK: 1800] “Battle Phase!” Ryan declared.
“First, Assault Wyvern attacks your face-down Defense Position monster!” Assault Wyvern shot forward, its silver blade slicing through Yusuke’s Set card.
A hulking figure made of stone emerged as the monster flipped face-up, only to be cleaved apart by the Wyvern’s attack.
[Rock Ogre Grotto #1 — DEF: 1200] Since a Defense Position monster had been destroyed by battle, Yusuke took no battle damage.
“At this moment, Assault Wyvern’s effect activates!” Ryan declared.
“When it destroys an opponent’s monster by battle, I can Tribute Assault Wyvern to Special Summon a Dragon monster from my hand or Graveyard, except another Assault Wyvern!” He revealed another Monster Card from his hand.
“I Tribute Assault Wyvern and Special Summon Rare Metal Dragon!” Assault Wyvern circled through the air before dissolving into countless golden particles.
The light gathered together again, forming the outline of a card before projecting a gleaming metallic dragon onto the field.
[Rare Metal Dragon — ATK: 2400] “And the Battle Phase isn’t over yet.” Ryan pointed across the field.
“Koumori Dragon, direct attack!
Let this piece of Satellite garbage experience the pain of darkness!” With no monster left to defend him, Yusuke could only watch as Koumori Dragon flew straight across the field.
Its claws tore through him.
The impact rocked his borrowed body, forcing him half a step backward before he steadied himself again.
[Yusuke — LP: 4000 → 2500] A Duel conducted as part of this sacrificial ritual wasn’t supposed to be harmless.
The duelists were meant to experience a considerable amount of actual pain whenever they took damage.
The moment Koumori Dragon’s attack connected, the assembled cultists waited eagerly for Yusuke’s scream.
Watching a sacrifice howl in agony as their Life Points were carved away was apparently one of the more enjoyable parts of the ceremony.
To everyone’s surprise, however, today’s sacrifice remained completely silent.
Yusuke casually took the hit, brushed some dust from his clothes, and looked as calm as ever.
His expression might as well have been asking: ‘That’s it?
Did that dragon skip breakfast?’ Ryan was beginning to feel genuinely unsettled.
What exactly was wrong with today’s sacrifice?
The man hadn’t shown the slightest fear from the beginning, and now it seemed as though he couldn’t even feel pain.
Ryan frowned.
Whatever.
The sooner he finished this, the sooner the ritual would be over.
“Rare Metal Dragon—direct attack!” Rare Metal Dragon had 2400 ATK.
If this attack connected, Yusuke would be reduced to a mere 100 Life Points, leaving him on the brink of defeat.
As far as Ryan was concerned, that was practically the same as being dead already.
The face-down monster Yusuke had played was nothing more than a pathetic Normal Monster that hadn’t even made a decent wall, while the card in his back row had done nothing during either of Ryan’s attacks.
It was probably nothing more than a useless bluff.
So in the end, today’s sacrifice really was just another worthless duelist from Satellite.
This ritual would end exactly like all the others.
Rare Metal Dragon opened its jaws, a swirling vortex of chaotic energy gathering inside its mouth— “I activate my Set card.” Yusuke’s face-down card flipped upright.
“Trap Card—Confusion Chaff!” Ryan’s eyelid twitched.
‘That wasn’t a bluff?’ “Confusion Chaff can only be activated when my opponent declares a second direct attack during the same Battle Phase,” Yusuke explained.
“It forces the monster making the second attack to battle the first monster that attacked me directly!” Ryan’s eyes widened.
“Nani?!” What kind of bizarre Trap was that?!
Rare Metal Dragon had already gathered enough power to unleash its attack, but its head abruptly swung sideways.
Instead of firing at Yusuke, the vortex erupted directly toward its own ally.
Koumori Dragon was blasted straight through by the attack.
Its dying roar echoed through the cavern, sounding suspiciously like it was screaming at its teammate to watch where it was firing, though that warning had clearly come too late.
“GYAAAAH!” [Ryan — LP: 4000 → 3100] Yusuke was only remotely controlling this body as a possessing spirit, so he hadn’t felt any pain from the earlier attack.
Ryan, however, was very much present in his own body.
Hearing the man scream finally made Yusuke realize something.
‘Oh.
So getting hit in one of these Duels actually hurts?’ Then again, that made sense.
They had already established that the loser was going to be sacrificed to some evil god.
Of course this was a Shadow Duel with real consequences.
Besides, this was the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
People dying because of a card game was practically normal around here.
The cultists below the altar looked equally stunned.
“He actually managed to hurt the Arbiter…” “It was luck!
It had to be!” Ryan finally recovered from the pain, though his expression had become considerably uglier.
“…I end my turn.” To be fair, Confusion Chaff really was an awkward card.
A Trap that couldn’t even be activated until the opponent declared a second direct attack in the same Battle Phase was far too situational to be considered particularly reliable in a serious Duel.
But Yusuke was working with a Deck assembled in the slums.
In Satellite, having any usable card was already something to be grateful for.
Duelists there didn’t exactly have the luxury of being picky.
It wasn’t as though someone could stroll through a Satellite junkyard and casually dig up rare Traps like Magic Cylinder or Mirror Force.
Then Yusuke’s turn came around again.
“My turn—draw.” He drew his card and looked over his hand.
Then, once again, he fell silent.
After thinking for two seconds, Yusuke finally made his move.
“I Set one monster in face-down Defense Position, then Set one card in my Spell & Trap Zone.
That’s it for my turn.” It was almost exactly the same play as before.
The entire turn took less than five seconds, to the point that anyone watching could have been forgiven for wondering whether the previous turn had somehow started playing again.
There was nothing Yusuke could do about it.
He had managed to catch Ryan with one Trap, but the situation on the field hadn’t really improved.
Ryan still controlled Rare Metal Dragon, a monster with a terrifying 2400 ATK.
That was the same ATK as the legendary Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
‘How the hell am I supposed to get over that with this Deck?’