"Light and Darkness Dragon, direct attack!"
"Guh—"
Boom boom.
Three days later.
The first duel of the second round.
Although Gloria gave it her all, regrettably, sometimes you need a bit of luck.
After losing the duel, Gloria glanced at the audience and then looked at Tenjo Hikari who was watching closely from the preparation hall, blushing, she silently headed to the Resurrection Race hall.
Even though she lost, there's still one more chance at the Resurrection Race, though by then, there will only be one spot left for the Resurrection Race, so isn't it too early to give up?
Thinking of how she patted her chest and guaranteed victory to Tenjo Hikari before, only to be questioned by him, and now could only run away dejectedly, Gloria felt her face burning and hurriedly scuttled away.
Tenjo Hikari didn't know what to say.
All he could say was, this statement was indeed taboo.
The second round of duels soon began, and with the matches getting more intense, spectators gradually developed a habit of watching at this fixed time every day.
Because some people were brought in from the Resurrection Race, even though they performed well, many could tell the obvious gap between them and the second-round duelists — Gloria fell into the category of being particularly unlucky.
Honestly, after watching Manjome's duel, Tenjo Hikari felt that this Manjome might not be inferior to Judai or Ed, an indescribable feeling, almost ridiculously strong.
In any case, from Tenjo Hikari's perspective, facing Manjome straight away was certainly unfortunate for Gloria.
Especially since Gloria only had eyes for herself and paid no attention to Manjome, losing was all too normal.
Since Tenjo Hikari was the contestant for the last duel of the second round, he had ample free time to observe and study others.
He focused on looking at the deck of his friends.
The Tenjouin siblings, Asuka was still using the Cyber Angel series; although unchanged, the Ox Angel's effect was indeed powerful, and Cyber Angel as a ritual support card had good resource circulation, easily overcoming the opponent.
And Tenjouin Fubuki…
Tenjo Hikari watched one of his duels.
To Tenjo Hikari's delight, Tenjouin Fubuki's deck was no longer "Red-Eyes."
Of course, that's not entirely accurate, Tenjouin Fubuki's deck wasn't exclusively a "Red-Eyes" deck anymore.
His deck became a peculiar mixture of Red-Eyes and Winged Beast-Type, with a bizarre blend of spell and trap cards, making it quite theatrical.
Though it's just a deck change, honestly, this isn't a simple matter.
Other friends switching components may not mean much, but it's Tenjouin Fubuki!
Previously, Tenjouin Fubuki was always influenced by the power of Darkness, no matter which deck he used, the cards would turn into the Red-Eyes series. Now that Fubuki could use other cards, it indicated he had adapted to the power of Darkness to a certain extent.
Exaggerated, but reasonable—because in the original works, Tenjouin Fubuki indeed accomplished this.
But what did he do during this time to enhance his Spirit Adaptability so much? Did he wear the Darkness mask every day?
That would be too extreme.
However, as Tenjo Hikari's mind conceived this thought, he gradually felt that this might actually be the answer.
For Caesar, Fubuki doing something drastic wouldn't be surprising.
Among other friends, Mitsuzawa's deck mixed with Amazoness, O'Brien's deck contained other Pyro-Type monsters, as for Jim, as in the original animation, he used the Fossil Series—but clearly not the original version.
Presumably collected his own Fossil Fusion cards.
The strength was indeed considerable.
As for Hell Caesar himself, Marufuji Ryo, there's not much more to say.
Cyber End Dragon, Cyberdark Dragon, Cyber Dragon Nova, he used each type of card without even a hint of craziness in his pursuit of victory.
Notably, Tenjo Hikari saw that John's spell and trap cards were quite comprehensive, even including Bridge of Rescue.
The family of Crystal Beasts might not be strong, but the magic and trap cards related to Crystal Beast are of premium quality.
Life isn't easy, the family isn't supportive, only magic and traps can aid them.
While Tenjo Hikari studied others, others naturally studied him too; compared to other competitors, Tenjo Hikari's fame was very high, only slightly lower than Caesar's, but regarding Tenjo Hikari's deck, many were already very clear.
A small quantity of Fusion Material and a large number of Fusion Cards.
Through multiple Portable Fusion Cards, a few Fusion Block Cards, and numerous powerful Fusion Monsters, versatile and flexible arrangements were made for each duel.
Ansueeru reviewed his deck, in addition to Skill Drain, added several other cards he deemed useful.
As time passed, soon, it reached Tenjo Hikari's turn.
Tenjo Hikari walked slowly into the Dueling Arena, and the audience inside burst into cheers upon seeing him.
Tenjo Hikari waved at them while observing the surroundings.
He discovered changes in the Dueling Arena, and a few Kaiba Company employees were quietly exchanging ideas and working.
This setup indicated that post this duel, the arena might undergo significant modifications.
"The second round, the last duel, begins now!"
Warm applause began to resound.
As the applause arose, suddenly with a "boom," massive flames erupted around, a spirit startled and jumped to extinguish the fire, the next second, the flames parted away and transformed into specks of light, adorning the arena's sky, sketching out two enormous cards.
One represented Ansueeru's Continuous Trap Card, Skill Drain.
The other was—Normal Spell Card, Polymerization!
"Wow." Tenjo Hikari raised his head, exclaiming in surprise.
"Strange, why did it activate automatically?"
"Eh eh eh, wasn't it supposed to be used in the next round? Lights, what's going on!?"
The Kaiba Company staff were startled.
Tenjo Hikari glanced around, looked at a giant chandelier, it swirled around as if nodding its head to Tenjo Hikari.
A phantom?
Tenjo Hikari understood its intention.
Want to see him duel once more?
"Tenjo Hikari, the opponent will definitely set a lot of trap cards targeting you." Tierra also leaned over to say.
"No worries, I've adjusted the deck."
Once the colors and lights faded, Tenjo Hikari and Ansueeru equipped their Duel Disks, facing each other.
"Duel!" X2.
Duel Academy Eastern Europe Branch, All Are Equal, Ansueeru, LP: 4000.
Duel Academy Main School, Absolute Fusion Master, Tenjo Hikari, LP: 4000.
Another flicker of lights, the duel officially begins!