“My turn—draw.” Ryan had already regained his composure after being caught off guard by that Trap on the previous turn.
Confusion Chaff had certainly been unexpected, but ultimately all it had done was sting him a little.
His ace, Rare Metal Dragon, was still standing strong on the field, while the Satellite trash across from him could do nothing except hide behind face-down monsters and delay the inevitable.
The advantage was still firmly his!
“I activate my Set Spell Card—Cost Down!” Ryan declared.
“By discarding one card, the Levels of all monsters in my hand are reduced by 2 for the rest of this turn.” He selected a card from his hand and sent it to the Graveyard, then immediately played another monster.
“Thanks to Cost Down, the Level 5 Handcuffs Dragon becomes Level 3, which means I can Normal Summon it without a Tribute.
Come out, Handcuffs Dragon!” [Handcuffs Dragon — ATK: 1800] “Battle Phase!
Handcuffs Dragon, attack that face-down Defense Position monster!” The cuffs around Handcuffs Dragon’s jaws snapped open and shut like a pair of enormous shears.
With a metallic crunch, they sliced straight through Yusuke’s face-down card.
A small green creature emerged from the card as it flipped face-up, only to be destroyed almost immediately.
[Green Phantom King — DEF: 1600] Another thoroughly ordinary Normal Monster.
“And now, Rare Metal Dragon!” Ryan pressed his advantage without hesitation.
“Direct attack!” A heavy vortex of energy roared from the metallic dragon’s jaws and tore through Yusuke.
His slender borrowed body swayed under the impact like a small boat caught in a storm, looking for a moment as though the blast might sweep him clean off his feet.
Somehow, he managed to steady himself and remain standing.
His expression never changed.
Once again, the pain of the Shadow Duel seemed to mean absolutely nothing to him.
[Yusuke — LP: 2500 → 100] The cultists surrounding the altar immediately erupted in cheers.
“As expected of Lord Arbiter!
He’s completely overwhelming him!” “Ha!
Satellite trash is still trash.
Imagine being this weak and actually thinking you had a chance of winning!” “You’ve only got 100 Life Points left!
Surrender now and you might save yourself a little suffering!” The spectators were already celebrating as though the Duel had ended.
Ryan, however, frowned slightly.
Why was this guy still so calm?
He hadn’t reacted to the excruciating pain of the Shadow Duel, and even with only 100 Life Points remaining, Ryan couldn’t sense the slightest trace of panic from him.
That unnatural composure was beginning to make him uneasy.
For one strange moment, Ryan had the uncomfortable impression that the person standing across from him wasn’t some insignificant bottom-feeder from Satellite at all.
It felt as though he were facing something else entirely, something far more dangerous that he simply couldn’t understand.
Ryan quickly shook off the ridiculous thought.
Whatever this sacrifice might be, the facts hadn’t changed.
The man had only 100 Life Points left, and the Deck he was using was undeniably a pile of Satellite junk.
Ryan was a proud Ritual Arbiter of the Order.
There was simply no possible way for him to lose!
Next turn, he would finish this for good!
“My turn…” Yusuke lowered his eyes toward the Deck resting in his Duel Disk.
This might very well be his final draw of the Duel.
Whatever card came off the top would determine whether he had any chance of turning this around.
If he couldn’t draw something useful here, then he probably really would have to pull the plug and retreat.
He could escape whenever he wanted, but this was still the first real Duel of his life.
For someone who had been hopelessly addicted to Yu-Gi-Oh!
in his previous life, letting his precious first real Duel end like this would be a little disappointing.
So he had no intention of giving up yet.
Yusuke rested his fingers on top of his Deck.
He remembered something from the anime.
Unlike cards in the real world, Decks in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!
genuinely possessed a spirit of their own.
‘Come on, you bunch of vanillas.
Show me what you’ve got!’ “Draw!” He pulled the top card from his Deck.
The instant it came free, the corner of the artwork entered his peripheral vision.
A faint smile tugged at Yusuke’s lips.
‘Looks like my luck ain’t that bad.’ “I activate the Spell Card—Ancient Rules!” A weathered ancient scroll unfurled in midair, golden light shimmering across the archaic writing inscribed upon it.
“Ancient Rules lets me Special Summon one Level 5 or higher Normal Monster from my hand.” At long last, the ace that had been stuck in Yusuke’s hand since the very first turn finally had a chance to take the field.
He raised the card high, and countless arcs of golden electricity seemed to gather around it.
“Level 6—Summoned Skull!” A towering fiend emerged amid crackling lightning, skeletal armor covering its dark body as electricity danced between its horns and claws.
[Summoned Skull — ATK: 2500] “Summoned Skull?!” Ryan’s expression finally shifted.
“You managed to summon a high-Level Normal Monster when you were already on the verge of defeat?” “I’m not done yet.
I activate the Equip Spell Dark Energy.
It can only be equipped to a Fiend monster, increasing its ATK and DEF by 300!” Dark energy surged around Summoned Skull, strengthening the electricity crackling across its body.
[Summoned Skull — ATK: 2500 → 2800] An Equip Spell restricted to Fiends that only granted 300 ATK and DEF…
Back in his past life, Yusuke wouldn’t even have remembered that such a miserable card existed, much less imagined that one day he would actually be grateful to draw it.
But right now, it was exactly what he needed.
“Battle Phase!
Summoned Skull, attack Handcuffs Dragon!” Electricity surged across the fiend’s skeletal frame before gathering overhead into a mass of storm clouds.
Golden lightning burst from the darkness and crashed toward Handcuffs Dragon.
“Lightning Strike!” The thunderbolt swallowed Handcuffs Dragon whole and blasted it apart.
[Ryan — LP: 3100 → 2100] The impact of the Shadow Duel made Ryan grit his teeth in pain.
Yet instead of becoming angry, he suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hahaha!
You got greedy and attacked Handcuffs Dragon just to deal more damage—but you’ve walked straight into my trap!
At this moment, Handcuffs Dragon’s effect activates!” The fragments of the destroyed dragon began to gather together again.
“When Handcuffs Dragon is destroyed by battle with an attacking monster you control and sent to the Graveyard, I can equip it to that monster.
The equipped monster loses 1800 ATK!” Handcuffs Dragon reappeared like a ghost, its enormous restraints snapping shut around Summoned Skull.
The powerful fiend immediately sagged under their weight, and the lightning surrounding its body dimmed dramatically.
[Summoned Skull — ATK: 2800 → 1000] “Didn’t see that coming, did you, kid?” Ryan sneered.
“I had a second layer of defense prepared from the beginning!
I already accounted for the possibility that you’d summon a powerful monster and try to fight back.
You never had a chance!” The cultists below eagerly joined in.
“As expected of Lord Arbiter!
He planned for everything!” “Struggle all you want, trash will always be trash!
Just accept your fate and become an offering to our lord!” Ryan sounded supremely confident, but deep down, he didn’t feel nearly as certain as he was pretending.
Because the sacrifice standing across from him…
was still smiling.
“I know what Handcuffs Dragon does,” Yusuke said.
Ryan froze.
“What?!” He stared at Yusuke in disbelief.
“You…
knew?
Then why did you attack it?” Dueling in this world wasn’t like playing the physical card game back on Earth.
A duelist couldn’t simply inspect an opponent’s monster and bring up a convenient window displaying its effect.
If you wanted to know what an unfamiliar card did before it activated, you had to recognize it from knowledge and experience accumulated over time.
Yusuke’s smile widened slightly.
“Because if I hadn’t attacked it, I wouldn’t be able to use this.” His remaining face-down card flipped open.
“Trap Card—Equip Shot!” Another red Trap Card appeared on the field.
“During the Battle Phase, Equip Shot lets me select an Equip Card attached to one of my face-up Attack Position monsters and transfer it to one of your face-up Attack Position monsters.” Yusuke pointed directly at the metallic dragon on Ryan’s field.
“So I’ll move Handcuffs Dragon from Summoned Skull over to your Rare Metal Dragon!” The restraints around Summoned Skull immediately sprang open.
Yusuke gave Ryan a bright, perfectly friendly smile.
“You gave me such a nice present, so it would be rude not to return the favor.
Here, you can have your Handcuffs Dragon back.
No need to thank me.” The ghostly dragon instantly changed targets, its enormous cuffs snapping shut around Rare Metal Dragon instead.
[Summoned Skull — ATK: 1000 → 2800] [Rare Metal Dragon — ATK: 2400 → 600] Ryan stared at the field in disbelief.
‘What the hell kind of Trap Card is that?!’ It transferred an Equip Card from one of your own monsters to an opponent’s monster—and only in that direction.
Under normal circumstances, most Equip Cards attached to your own monsters were beneficial effects that increased ATK or provided some other advantage.
Even if you happened to have an Equip Card that weakened its target, you could usually just equip it directly to the opponent’s monster in the first place.
Equipping something to your own monster only to transfer it afterward sounded completely backwards.
Ryan genuinely couldn’t understand why anyone would put a card like this in their Deck.
He almost wanted to ask Yusuke whether someone could play a hundred Duels with this thing and ever find a single opportunity to use it.
Unfortunately, Yusuke couldn’t answer that question either.
He hadn’t built this Deck.
It wasn’t as though he had personally decided that Equip Shot deserved a slot.
Maybe this was simply how things worked in Satellite.
When you were building a Deck out of whatever scraps you could find in the slums, you didn’t exactly get to be picky.
Still…
Yusuke had to admit that when a ridiculous card like this finally worked, watching the opponent’s expression was incredibly satisfying.
“And Equip Shot isn’t finished yet,” Yusuke continued.
“After transferring the Equip Card, it forces my previously equipped monster and the selected opposing monster to battle!” Ryan’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
“What?!” It forced another battle too?!
Under normal rules, a monster could only declare one attack per Battle Phase.
But Equip Shot’s effect conducted a new battle between the two selected monsters, allowing Summoned Skull, which had already attacked this turn, to fight once again.
Yusuke thrust out his hand.
“Summoned Skull, attack Rare Metal Dragon!” The cultists around the altar stared in stunned silence, unable to accept what was happening before their eyes.
Their mighty Ritual Arbiter…
was going to lose?
To the sacrifice?
To some nobody dragged in from Satellite?
Lightning gathered around Summoned Skull for the second time.
“Lightning Strike!” A second torrent of thunder came crashing down.
Rare Metal Dragon hadn’t been able to match Summoned Skull even at full strength.
Now, with Handcuffs Dragon shackling it and reducing its ATK to a pathetic 600, it had no chance whatsoever.
The lightning engulfed the metallic dragon and blasted it to pieces.
Ryan’s eyes went wide, disbelief written across his face.
“AAAAAARGH!” [Ryan — LP: 2100 → 0]