The moment the monsters successfully hit the field, Yusaku's wrist flicked in a blur—three cards slapped down onto his Duel Disk, crisp and decisive.
"Next, I set three cards!"
Before the words even finished leaving his mouth, a clear electronic hum rang across the arena. Three face-down cards unfolded neatly into his back row, like three traps waiting in silence for the perfect trigger.
With his set cards in place, Yusaku lifted a finger and revealed a card from his hand.
"Finally, I activate the Spell Card—Card Destruction! Its effect is: all players with cards in hand must discard their entire hand. Then, each player draws the same number of cards they discarded."
He looked up at Shota Mikawa across the field, his tone perfectly even. "You're holding four cards right now, so you'll draw four. After I activate this, I'll have one card left in hand, so I'll draw one."
With that, Yusaku slid the Spell into the GY and drew a single fresh card from his Deck.
Shota snorted, sent his entire hand to the GY, and immediately drew four. The instant the new cards hit his fingers, a grim light flashed in his eyes.
"Yusaku… you really did me a huge favor," he said darkly. "Some of the cards in my hand trigger their effects when they're sent to the GY!"
He jabbed a finger forward.
"I activate the effect of Danger! Bigfoot! in my GY!"
"If this card is discarded from the hand, I can target one face-up card on your field and destroy it!"
"A destruction effect, huh?" Yusaku glanced at the card he'd just drawn, his brow lifting almost imperceptibly. "I've got six face-up cards on my field. Which one are you picking?"
Shota's brows snapped together as his eyes raced across Yusaku's board. Four monsters stood like a wall, plus a Field Spell and a Continuous Spell—an airtight formation.
He already had Magical Scientist figured out down to the last detail, but the other three monsters were a black box to him.
Especially Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad.
His intel only said it had appeared together with Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS – Sky Thunder—but nobody could say for sure whether that suffocating lockdown was Rhongomyniad's doing, or ZEUS's.
After a brief hesitation, Shota finally made his choice.
He thrust his hand out like a verdict.
"I choose Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad—destroy it!"
At that, the faintest curl of mockery touched Yusaku's lips. Of course. The moment an effect was unclear, Shota would go straight for it—exactly as Yusaku expected.
A sharp green flare surged up from Shota's GY, packed with destructive force, and slammed toward Yusaku's field.
But the instant it was about to touch Rhongomyniad, the green light vanished—like it had been swallowed by a bottomless swamp, disappearing without leaving even the slightest ripple.
"W-What?!" Shota's pupils shrank violently. "That monster… it isn't affected by monster effects?!"
Yusaku smiled, calm and faintly amused.
"That's something you can keep guessing."
He'd dueled enough information-junkies to understand their playbook by heart.
Once they confirmed a monster's effects, they'd spread it everywhere—so nobody could ever steal wins with that same card again.
So Yusaku had learned: either say nothing, or say only half.
The rest?
Let the opponent suffer their way to the answer.
His gaze flicked to the Deck counter on his Duel Disk, then back to Shota's ashen face.
"Your Deck's down to twenty-four cards now," Yusaku said, still smiling mildly. "Still think my Deck is third-rate?"
Shota's expression twisted, but he forced the words out anyway.
"Hmph! I just have to finish you before my Deck gets banished away! You're at only a thousand Life Points—barely a candle in the wind! I can summon anything with over 1300 ATK and this duel ends!"
"Oh?" Yusaku raised a brow and gestured politely, completely unbothered. "Then by all means—show me."
"My turn—draw!"
Shota roared, yanking a card from his Deck. The moment he saw it, his eyes lit up—and he slammed it down onto his Duel Disk without hesitation.
"Gadarla, the Mystery Dust Kaiju!"
"This card can Tribute one monster you control, then Special Summon itself from my hand to your field in Attack Position!" His glare locked onto Yusaku like a blade. "I Tribute your Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad and Special Summon Gadarla, the Mystery Dust Kaiju!"
The card hit the disk.
Shota's eyes glued themselves to Rhongomyniad, as if he could will it into disappearing.
Two full seconds passed.
Nothing happened.
Rhongomyniad didn't budge an inch. The crackling radiance around it didn't even flicker—there wasn't the slightest sign it was being Tributed.
Shota's pupils trembled. His heart sank like a stone.
He snatched the card back up and slammed it down again, voice tight with panic he couldn't fully hide.
"I Tribute your Number 86: Heroic Champion – Rhongomyniad—and I summon Gadarla, the Mystery Dust Kaiju again!"
Still nothing.
The Duel Disk's lights blinked weakly, then went quiet. The field didn't change at all.
Shota finally started to unravel. He hurriedly pulled another card and slapped it down, his voice already shaking.
"Then I Normal Summon—Fairy Tail - Luna!"
He stared at his own Monster Zone, desperate for the summoning flash.
But reality crushed him again.
The indicator lights blinked once—and the summoning glow never came.
"T-This… this can't be possible!" Shota stumbled back two steps, his face draining paper-white.
In the stands, the Genius Academy students and the Gurus members finally understood.
So the Special Summon lock had nothing to do with ZEUS at all.
It was all Rhongomyniad.
And combining that with the resistance they'd just tested…
This monster wasn't affected by other cards' effects either.
"Three backrow… and a summon lockdown?!" one academy student swallowed hard, voice trembling. "How is there a monster this disgusting?!"
Other contestants, watching Shota's repeated attempts fail one after another, finally reacted too—staring at Yusaku with unmistakable fear.
If Yusaku went first and established that monster, the duel was basically decided from turn one.
At center field, Yusaku looked down at Shota—pale, shaking—and spoke with mild, teasing pity.
"What's wrong? Not testing anymore? It's still your turn, you know. You can try a few more times. I'm not in a hurry."
The words hit Shota like a knife.
His entire deck revolved around relentless Special Summons to build a board. With summoning sealed off completely, it was no different than a death sentence.
But he still refused to surrender.
He clenched his cards until his knuckles whitened, eyes vicious as he locked onto Yusaku.
"Yusaku, don't think you've already won! I'm telling you—it's not that simple!"
Before the echo faded, he slapped down another card, voice loaded with reckless desperation.
"My deck has a card made specifically to counter monsters like yours! It targets the duelist, not the monster! That means your Rhongomyniad's protection won't matter—I investigated that long ago! As soon as I draw that card, it's my comeback!"
"Oh?" Yusaku tilted his head slightly. "You sure it hasn't already been banished?"
Shota's pupils shrank hard. He whipped his head to his banished zone, and when he confirmed the key card was still safe, his chest loosened by the smallest margin.
Then Yusaku's next words shoved him straight into the abyss.
"Alright, I'm done playing with you," Yusaku said, folding his arms with a faintly cruel smile. "You want to use Spells and Traps to dig for it? That's impossible. In other words…"
"This turn, you can't draw the card you're looking for."
Shota snapped his head up.
"No way! According to the intel our academy collected, one of your previous opponents activated Evenly Matched against you! That proves your Rhongomyniad doesn't lock Spells and Traps!"
Yusaku glanced at him, voice edged with contempt.
"Do you seriously think the other monsters on my field are just decorations?"
Shota froze.
His face turned bloodless.
Still, he clung to hope and slammed a card down anyway.
"I activate the Spell Card—Sekka's Light! It can be activated if there are no Spells/Traps in my GY! I have none, so I can draw two cards!"
The card hit the disk. The Duel Disk's program started up—
—and then, just like before, the lights blinked once and fell silent, with no sign of the effect resolving.
"Naturia Bamboo Shoot's effect," Yusaku said, watching Shota with calm finality. "This card must be Tribute Summoned by Tributing a 'Naturia' monster. While it's face-up on the field, you can't activate any Spell/Trap Cards."
"The Tribute I used to Summon it was Naturia Camellia," Yusaku continued, his voice carrying clearly through the entire stadium. "So that effect has been live since the instant my summon succeeded. As long as Naturia Bamboo Shoot stays on my field…"
"Don't even dream of activating a single Spell or Trap."
The arena erupted.
"Summon lockdown and Spell/Trap lockdown… he can't move at all!"
"The one who can't move is Shota! Yusaku can do whatever he wants! The lockdown only hits the opponent—it doesn't affect him at all!"
"Damn it! He's winning again! Is there seriously nobody who can stop him?!"
"Summon lock plus Spell/Trap lock… if you duel him, you'd better pray you're going first. Otherwise you won't even know how you died."
(End of Chapter)
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