Chapter 162: Surrender? Too Late!
Trap card activates. King's Resonance!
King's Resonance
Trap Card: When an opponent's monster declares an attack on your Synchro Monster, activate this card. Negate that attack. Then you may apply the following effect. Banish that Synchro Monster and 1 Tuner in your GY. Special Summon 1 Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck whose Level equals the combined Levels of those banished monsters, treating it as a Synchro Summon.
"I negate Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju's attack! Then I banish my Level 8 Red Dragon Archfiend / Right Red Mark from the field alongside my Level 2 Tuner, Shiranui Spiritblade, from the Graveyard! Level 8 plus Level 2, ten Levels total. King's Resonance!"
Twenty plus eighty equals one hundred.
"The great mountain shakes! Flames that tear through peaks and earth, reveal yourself alongside them!
"King's Resonance! Synchro Summon!
"Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane!!"
Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane
Level 10 / DARK
Dragon / Synchro / Effect
ATK: 3500 / DEF: 3000
The Synchro effect cut through the wall of flame like a razor-edged blade sweeping clean. The Level 10 dragon descended onto Amano Rei's field through the power of King's Resonance, landing with the full weight of a conqueror.
The Class 1-E students watching from the school gate were completely electric.
"He Synchro Summoned on the opponent's turn, back to back! I would not even dare try to picture pulling that off!"
"Amano-kun, you are an absolute Synchro master!"
One by one, each of them was buzzing louder than the last.
With her attacks dissolved by consecutive Synchro Summons, Kuroshio Nagi's pale neck was damp with a thin film of sweat.
After King's Resonance resolved, her position on the field was no longer looking comfortable.
She still had her Continuous Trap Spirit Swords of Sealing Light set in the back row. Paying another 1000 Life Points to activate it was possible, but that would push her dangerously close to zero.
Still, Amano had no cards in hand. If she could just survive until her next turn, she could use the Spell Card Interrupted Kaiju Slumber to pull another monster back to her hand.
"My turn ends!"
"Then the moment your turn ends, Scar-Red Nova Dragon returns from banishment to my field!"
Scar-Red Nova Dragon: ATK 4500
Shiranui Spiritblade had been banished as Synchro material for King's Resonance, but Cosmic Spell Rabbit was still sitting in the Graveyard as a Tuner. Scar-Red Nova Dragon's ATK held firm at 4500.
On the other side of the ledger, with the turn over, Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju's boosted ATK reverted from 4500 back to its base of 3300.
Surveying the field right now, Amano's two Red Dragon Archfiend variants were in complete command. The advantage was absolute.
"Wait, why are there two Red Dragon Archfiends at the school gate? Who is even dueling?!"
A familiar girl's voice drifted in from beyond the fog. The watching students, as though acting on some collective instinct, cleared a path without being asked, parting themselves neatly so she could walk straight into the center of the mist.
The only girl who could command that kind of reception was Synchro Academy's star duelist, Rin Seiya.
When Rin Seiya stepped through the fog and saw Amano Rei at the center of the duel, and then saw the two monsters standing on his field, she went still.
"Scar-Red Nova Dragon and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane?"
She stared for a moment. Then something seemed to click behind her eyes. Her cheeks puffed out with unmistakable displeasure.
"Junior! When you dueled me, you never Synchro Summoned this many Red Dragon Archfiends at once! That is absolutely playing favorites, junior!"
This is not favoritism, Seiya-senpai. This is a duel I absolutely cannot afford to lose.
The bystanders had no idea, of course. None of the onlookers knew what the two duelists inside that fog were actually putting on the line.
"My turn! Draw!"
Amano looked at the card he had just pulled.
The corner of his mouth tugged upward on its own.
It was over. He had won.
If this duel came down to one survivor, it was going to be him. There was no other acceptable outcome. Not now. Not ever.
"Hold it together, body. I need you to hold it together!!"
With everything he had, Amano triggered a Graveyard effect.
"During the Standby Phase, I pay 1000 Life Points to Special Summon World Legacy 'Star Shield' from my Graveyard!"
Amano Rei LP: 2200 -> 1200
He gritted his teeth against the pain. But it was a calculated risk, and he had managed to pull Star Shield back onto the field where he needed it.
World Legacy "Star": DEF 3000
"By Star's effect, Kuroshio-san, you may also Special Summon a monster from your hand or Graveyard!"
"No. I'll pass. You can Summon your own."
This time, Kuroshio Nagi had learned.
Last turn, she had gone along with Star's trigger and Special Summoned, only to eat an extra 500 points of burn damage from Right Red Mark wiping her field. If Amano had drawn another Level 2 Tuner this turn and Synchro Summoned a second Right Red Mark, anything she put out would get wiped and she would lose another 500 Life Points. At 1500 LP, losing 500 more would leave her completely unable to activate Spirit Swords of Sealing Light.
"You didn't fall for it. A shame." Amano raised his hand toward Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane. "Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane's effect activates!"
Tribute 1 monster you control. Target 1 Red Dragon Archfiend monster in your GY. Special Summon that target.
"I Tribute World Legacy 'Star Shield' from my field to target Red Dragon Archfiend / Right Red Mark in my Graveyard. Come back, Red Dragon Archfiend! Rise from the hell-fires of the underworld!"
Red Dragon Archfiend / Right Red Mark: ATK 3000
No Tuner was even necessary. Amano could revive Right Red Mark regardless of what he had drawn this turn.
Nearby, Rin Seiya ground her teeth together so hard that people standing next to her winced at the sound. "Three. He has three Red Dragon Archfiend monsters on the field at the same time. Who even is this girl he is dueling?! I am genuinely jealous right now!"
Are you jealous, Seiya-senpai?
If you were actually standing across from this field, I sincerely doubt those would be the words coming out of your mouth.
And judging by your expression right now, senpai, I have serious concerns about your ability to keep certain things clenched.
If Kuroshio Nagi had taken the bait and Special Summoned something with 3000 ATK or below, Amano could have used Right Red Mark's effect to lock Spirit Swords of Sealing Light out of the equation entirely. But unfortunately, every monster currently on the field had higher ATK than Right Red Mark. There was nothing worth hitting, and no way to force the critical damage through.
Amano let out a quiet sigh. "Kuroshio-san, if you had fallen for it, you at least would have lost more comfortably."
Kuroshio Nagi shot back, "Even from you, I am not going to accept that. I have not lost yet!"
"Then let's move to the Battle Phase."
Amano swept his hand forward, commanding three roaring Red Dragon Archfiend monsters as they surged toward Kuroshio Nagi on the far side of the fog.
"Scar-Red Nova Dragon, attack!
"Burning Soul!!"
Cloaked in scarlet flame, willing itself into a living battering ram, Scar-Red Nova Dragon crashed headlong toward the enemy. Tau Isha, Scar-Red Familiar stood at 4000 ATK. Out of everything on Amano's field, Scar-Red Nova Dragon was the only monster with enough ATK to clear it.
"Kuroshio-san, I would strongly advise against activating Spirit Swords of Sealing Light."
"How could I possibly not activate it?!"
Kuroshio Nagi raised her hand, guiding golden swords of light with her fingertips, launching them skyward toward the charging dragon.
"I pay 1000 Life Points. Spirit Swords of Sealing Light negates this attack!"
Kuroshio Nagi LP: 1500 -> 500
Countless golden blades wove together into a radiant barrier, and for the second time, a dragon wrapped in Burning Soul was stopped cold at the edge of that wall.
With her Life Points nearly spent to the bottom, Kuroshio Nagi had gone from worrying about her stomach to worrying about considerably more vulnerable areas further south.
This Dark Game had started because of a misunderstanding in the first place. Even now, Amano still had not confirmed whether Kuroshio Nagi was actually affiliated with the dark duelists or not.
But dueling her had told him things that cold logic could not.
The girl in front of him was a little rough around the edges, maybe. She had a delinquent's style, a burn-scarred bandage over her left eye, and the kind of cigarette habit that usually came with a few questionable life choices. But her nature, the actual person underneath all that, did not feel genuinely malicious.
Maybe this was the fan version of the idol filter. The same way fans softened everything they saw about someone they admired, maybe Amano was doing the same in reverse.
Even if it was wishful thinking on his part, he wanted to believe that someone who loved watching him duel was not a bad person at heart.
But Kuroshio Nagi had not taken his advice. She had activated Spirit Swords of Sealing Light and stopped Scar-Red Nova Dragon, which looked like it bought her some breathing room. The remaining monsters on Amano's field, Right Red Mark and Bane, could not crack through Tau Isha's 4000 ATK wall.
On the surface, it looked that way.
In reality, it was something else entirely.
"I have one card left in my hand."
When you put sympathy on one side of the scale and the outcome of this duel on the other, the outcome of this duel was heavier. There was no version of this where he lost. Not even to his own fan.
He absolutely could not lose. Not a chance. Not today.
"Quick-Play Spell, Instant Fusion, activate!"
His original plan had been to finish this through Synchro Summons alone. Even if it triggered the Dark Game's overkill, the excess damage from a Synchro attack would not have been enormous. Kuroshio started this Dark Game herself, so she had to have at least some built-in resistance to the penalty.
But now he had no room left to hold back.
"Using Instant Fusion's effect, during the Battle Phase, I Fusion Summon by using Red Dragon Archfiend / Right Red Mark and Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Bane from my field as Fusion Materials!"
Rin Seiya's jaw dropped. "What?! He just Fusion Summoned using two Red Dragon Archfiends?! What kind of dueling style even is that, junior?!"
In Rin Seiya's mind, Jack Atlas's Red Dragon Archfiend deck was the purest Synchro strategy that existed. A Synchro deck through and through.
But Amano's Red Dragon Archfiend lineup was a different creature.
If the Fusion requirements could be met, it did not matter what the monsters were. Even Synchro Dragons were getting thrown into the Fusion vortex.
"Fusion Materials: two DARK-attribute monsters on the field!"
Right Red Mark and Bane were drawn into the spiraling Fusion effect during the middle of the Battle Phase. Within that spiral, a pair of deep crimson eyes flickered into view, venomous and razor-sharp, observing everything from the far side of a dimensional boundary as though deciding whether to consume it.
"Illuminate the darkness with eyes of two colors! Become the hands of the clock and point toward a new path!
"Appear! Venom Dragon born of ravenous hunger! Fusion Summon!
"Starving Venom Fusion Dragon!!"
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon
Level 8 / DARK
Dragon / Fusion / Effect
ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2000
2 DARK monsters
Born from two DARK-attribute Red Dragon Archfiend variants consumed through the dimensional boundary, the Fusion Dragon materialized.
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon coiled its sinuous body through the fog. Its absolute, concentrated darkness seemed to look at the enormous Kaiju across the field and see nothing more than a source of nutrients waiting to be processed.
"And this is Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's effect!"
This effect can only be activated the turn this card was Fusion Summoned using only monsters on the field as materials. Until the end of the turn, this card's ATK increases by the combined ATK of all Special Summoned monsters your opponent currently controls.
"Absorb the opponent's Special Summoned Kaiju!
"Venomous Absorption!!"
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon: ATK 2800 -> 6100
"Six thousand one hundred?!" The tremor in Kuroshio Nagi's voice was completely unconcealed.
Even in an ordinary duel, an actual physical impact feedback of 6100 points was enough to knock most duelists unconscious.
And this was not an ordinary duel. This was a Dark Game, with the dignity of being human on the line.
Kuroshio Nagi's hand shot instinctively behind her back.
"Wait. I give up. Okay, I admit it, I was getting a little full of myself earlier. Surrender. I surrender. Can we please work something out here? Don't use that monster to attack me. Give me until next turn and I will personally find a way to crash into something myself."
"It is already too late, Kuroshio-san."
The moment Instant Fusion had brought Starving Venom onto the field, the overkill ending of this duel had been sealed beyond any possibility of reversal.
Instant Fusion's downside: the monster it summons is destroyed during the End Phase.
Starving Venom Fusion Dragon's effect: when this card is destroyed, destroy all Special Summoned monsters your opponent controls, then deal damage to your opponent equal to their combined ATK.
The overkill this turn could not be stopped.
"I will pretend I did not see anything, Kuroshio-san."
That was about the last mercy Amano had left to offer a fan.
After all, he had not been the one to start this Dark Game. There was no reason to bury himself in guilt over what was coming.
And besides, he had been fighting with his own dignity as a human being on the line too.
"Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, final attack!
"Heaven-Slaying Venom Fang!!"
Six thousand one hundred points of absolute destruction. A purple beam erupted from those terrifying jaws and condensed into fangs that pierced through everything, tearing through the Dark Game's thick fog in a single instant, striking down the enormous thunder beast soaring through the foggy sky above.
Thunder King, the Lightningstrike Kaiju: destroyed.
Kuroshio Nagi LP: 500 -> 0
"AAAAAHHHHHHH! WAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Kuroshio Nagi's piercing scream cut straight through the fog. The last time anyone nearby had heard a sound that raw was when the Soul Binder had been incinerated by four consecutive layers of Synchro fire.
But from that scream alone, one thing was certain: Kuroshio Nagi and the Soul Binder were absolutely not the same person.
Because partway through the scream, the girl clearly started crying.
Anyone could figure out why. She had been holding herself together past her absolute limit and needed something louder to cover for it.
As for Amano Rei, who had given every last thing he had, right down to summoning a dragon born of dimensional fusion itself, he had finally, at last, survived.
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