Is this the poker world?Ada thief!

At first, there were mostly weak monsters like [Demon Scorpion] and [Nightmare Scorpion], but as Caesar and Edward advanced, the noise from their battles with the monsters and the dueling energy emanating from the slain Duel Monsters attracted more and more Spirits.

The number of monsters summoned, including the Demon Shovel Worm, the Hell Centipede, the Sandstorm Spirit, and even the Desert Tornado Monster, is increasing, as is the strength of the monsters they attract!

The more they fought, the slower they realized they were moving. Caesar and Ed decisively changed their strategy and began to divide the work: Caesar's [Cyber ​​Dragon] was responsible for attacking and breaking through the monsters blocking their way, while Ed used his [D·Hero] to defend against the pursuers from behind. One attacked and the other defended to achieve the highest efficiency in advancing.

"Boom!" The two intersecting laser beams spat out by the [Electronic Twin Dragon] annihilated the [Desert Tornado Monster] blocking its way. Before the sandstorm could regroup, Caesar immediately spurred his [Chimera Fortress Dragon] forward—it was definitely faster to use a Duel Monster than to run on foot.

Just as the [Chimera Fortress Dragon] was about to pass through the sandstorm formed by the blasted [Desert Tornado Monster], a pair of demonic claws suddenly emerged from it and grabbed at the "Tire Dragon". But the next moment, the sand claws were cut off by a golden sword!

"【D·hero Twilight Islander】!" Ed commanded his monsters to defend against the pursuers behind them. Since most of the monsters were humanoid, he simply hitched a ride with Caesar on the 【Chimera Fortress Dragon】. "Sorry, this is a one-way street, so please don't keep chasing us."

The true form of the "Vibrant Life" claws—the [Sandstorm Evil Spirit]—though it spoke human language, it was clearly not capable of communicating smoothly with Edward and his companions. It was merely driven by a greedy appetite for living beings, and suddenly spat out a red energy cannon at Edward's [D·hero Twilight Pope]!
"【Sandstorm Evil Spirit】? I remember it was a Soul Monster. I see. So, using 【D·hero Twilight Utopia】 against you was definitely the right choice!" The golden-bodied 【D·hero Twilight Utopia】 charged straight at the energy cannon without hesitation. His golden body seemed to be invincible, completely unaffected, and he directly reversed the attack, punching and elbowing 【Sandstorm Evil Spirit】 away, shattering it into energy.

—Although not in an official duel, the effect of [Sandstorm Demon] still has some effect in actual battles. Its ability is to destroy all face-up monsters except itself when it enters the field, but coincidentally, [D·hero Twilight Islander] has the ability to grant other monsters, including itself, the ability to not be destroyed by effects.

Seeing that they were about to lose track of Edward and his group, the last group of monsters did not hesitate to devour the body of the [Sand Demon] that had fallen at their feet. The remaining monsters, unwilling to give up, continued to chase after Caesar and his group.

The deaths of two high-level monsters in succession, along with Kaiser and Edward's summoning of powerful monsters, intensified the dueling energy here once again. A new monster seemed poised to emerge from the sand to block their path. Kaiser glanced at the Cyber ​​Twin Dragon, which, while still maintaining an advantage, was gradually losing its overwhelming force. He decisively used a Fusion Contact to recall it, then combined it with another Cyber ​​Dragon in his hand to use Fusion.

"Don't blink, you scum! This will be the last monster you ever see—the [Cyber ​​Terminator Dragon]!"

A three-headed mechanical dragon appeared in the sky, like a monster king overlooking his territory. Before Caesar could command the [Electronic Terminator Dragon] to launch any attack, suddenly all the monsters that were chasing Caesar and his companions stopped in their tracks and began to retreat in the opposite direction.

Only the monsters blocking Caesar's path remained.

"Was it scared away by the [Electronic Terminator Dragon]?" Edward wondered upon seeing this.

Caesar disagreed: "No, while the [Electronic Terminator Dragon] is much more powerful, it's far from being able to scare away the monsters here simply by appearing. It feels more like—"

While Caesar and his companion were still talking, the monsters blocking their path began to stir restlessly. One of them, the [Heaven-Shaking Scorpion Lion], couldn't wait any longer and charged straight at Caesar!

But in the next moment, a giant hand suddenly slammed down from the sky, slapping the [Heaven-Shaking Scorpion Lion] onto the sand like a fly, instantly killing and dissipating it. The owner of the giant hand simply supported himself on the sand, as if he had never intended to attack the [Heaven-Shaking Scorpion Lion] at all, and had simply killed it by moving his body casually.

Like a reenactment of the mythical "Moses Parting the Sea," the desert was torn apart by another enormous arm. A huge demon with a jet-black body took a deep breath and swallowed the dueling energy released by the dead elves around it like a whale. At the same time, it used a staff brought out from under the sand to grab the elves that had not had time to escape and stuffed them into its mouth to chew them, as if it had just woken up and was so hungry that it would eat anything.

Staring at the enormous, demon-like monster, both Edward and Caesar were dumbfounded: "Is this the powerful monster that exists in this world?"

"Gulp!" After swallowing a large mouthful, the giant patted its bulging stomach and let out a strange cry, as if declaring its name. The sleeping demon, taller than a mountain and almost as tall as the moon, had been given ample energy by the sheer number of dead dueling monsters. The [Sleeping Giant - Gulp] awoke!
"Hey, I know that duelists grow stronger by seeking challenges." Since the surrounding monsters had either fled or been eaten by [Sleeping Giant - Gudu], Edward no longer needed to deal with other monsters and could face the colossus in front of him with Caesar. "But isn't it a bit too difficult to fight a monster of this exaggerated size?"

"I just want to enjoy the thrill of victory, I'm not some crazy card addict who only cares about the thrill of battle." Caesar looked seriously at the giant before him. "Let's not confront this monster head-on for now."

“Your wisdom is quite remarkable, but the problem is that this guy up there doesn’t seem to want us to leave.” As soon as Edward finished speaking, they saw the Sleeping Giant – Gudu – who had just swallowed many monsters but still seemed to have only just begun to eat and was not full at all, reaching out to them, intending to take them along to fill his stomach.

With extreme decisiveness, Edward leaped off the [Chimera Fortress Dragon] and was caught in mid-air by the newly summoned [D·hero Doctrine], flying almost skimming the ground into the air.

However, Caesar did not leave the [Chimera Fortress Dragon], but watched helplessly as the [Sleeping Giant - Gudu]'s hand slammed down!

"Boom!" The sound of the [Chimera Fortress Dragon] being slapped to pieces made Edward instinctively look over, and he said in surprise, "Huh!? That Caesar guy didn't even try to dodge?"

However, seeing that the [Electronic Terminator Dragon] in the sky was still there and was still counterattacking the [Sleeping Giant - Gudu], Edward knew that he didn't need to worry about Caesar's condition. He was carried into the air by the [D·hero Doctrine] and muttered to himself, "At times like this, I'm really glad that I did a lot of extreme sports in the past and overcame my fear of heights."

“Take on as my wings for now, [D·Hero Doctrine], and then,” feeling that the power of [D·Hero Twilight Pope] might not be enough, Edward played another card, “Give me a hand, Saiō. [V·Hero Worshipper]!”

The phantom hero and the hero of destiny appeared together. Taking advantage of the fact that the giant demon was distracted by the more imposing [Electronic Terminator Dragon] in the air, they launched a combined attack. First, [D·hero Twilight Pope] applied all of his protective golden power to himself, granting him absolute defense that would not be destroyed by battle effects or allow Edward to suffer battle damage. Then, [V·hero Worshipper] extracted the power of [D·hero Twilight Pope], transformed it into a phantom, and crashed into [Sleeping Giant - Gudu]!
Although the Sleeping Giant - Gudu looks very strong, and even the attack of the Electronic Terminator Dragon couldn't shake it in the slightest, as long as the power of the V Hero Worshipper is used to reduce its attack power first, even an attack power of the level of the Five Divine Dragons will become something that the D Hero Twilight Portman can defeat!
—After all, the highest base attack power of a Duel Monster is only 5000 points, like the Five Divine Dragons. Could it be that the original attack power of that giant monster was more than 6000 points?

However, under Edward's watchful gaze, after the phantom of [D·hero Twilight Poppy] crashed into [Sleeping Giant - Gudu], it not only failed to reduce its attack power in the slightest, but the phantom itself was even shattered!
"This feeling... could it be that the monster's attack power couldn't have decreased by 3000 points at all?!" Edward murmured in astonishment. "How is that possible! Even the [Cyber ​​Terminator Dragon] with an attack power of 4000 points couldn't defeat it?! How could its attack power not even be 3000 points?!"

"No, there's another possibility. Could it be that the monster's attack power is a very special type that changes depending on the opponent's monster's attack power?!" Edward suddenly remembered the special type of monster that Hayato had mentioned in class, such as the [Evil God - God's Incarnation], which Hayato called "Egg" and was said to be a "God Card." Edward vaguely guessed that this was part of the reason why the attack power of [Sleeping Giant - Gudu] could not be reduced.

Because Hayato had posed a series of questions to the students listening to the song, such as the priority of attack power changes during damage calculation and which monster would have higher attack power in the final outcome, Edward had a deep impression of the effect of [Evil God - Avatar of God], and thus guessed the effect of the monster in front of him: "So this monster's attack power is actually only 0 points, but it can become higher than any opponent's by a certain value when attacking, which is why the effect of [V·Hero Worshipper] can't reduce its attack power!"

"Um!?"

As Ed was analyzing the situation, the Sleeping Giant-Gudu suddenly swung its arm with a speed disproportionate to its enormous size, nearly hitting Ed who was flying through the air. Fortunately, only Ed was distracted; the Doctrine of D·hero was not and managed to dodge the attack with Ed in time.

At that moment, a gigantic mechanical dragon suddenly rose from the spot where the [Chimera Fortress Dragon] had been destroyed. Its five [Electronic Darkness] components connected to form the [Armored Dragon - Electronic Dark Nether Dragon], and the destroyed [Chimera Fortress Dragon] was reduced to equipment and held beneath it. A single shot, however, had little effect on the [Sleeping Giant - Gudu].

"As expected, both its attack and defense capabilities adapt to the enemy, and this isn't limited to its own attacks." Caesar, his foot planted on the head of [Armored Dragon - Cyber ​​Dark Dragon], frowned and reached the same conclusion as Edward. "And it's a perpetual effect that doesn't require activation, otherwise the effect of [Armored Dragon - Cyber ​​Dark Dragon] would have been enough to counter it."

"In that case, I'll use this one! There's more than one way to defeat a monster than by comparing attack power." Edward took out the magic card [Fusion Fate], holding it high above his head. "May the immortal and indestructible hero of ultimate destiny descend upon this land!"

"【D·hero Destroys the Phoenix】!"

A firebird flew out from Edward's card and crashed into [Sleeping Giant - Gudu]. Although, like the battles that other monsters had tried before, it failed to repel the giant in the slightest—it couldn't even shake it. However, [D·hero Destruction Phoenix Man], which launched an attack almost like a self-destruction, was instantly revived from the flames!
Seeing that the phoenix fire spreading across the giant's body couldn't reduce its attack power, Edward realized that the monster's original attack power was indeed 0 points, with no room for reduction. However, his current goal was no longer to reduce the opponent's attack power, but rather—

"If fighting is futile, then let our lives burn! [D·hero Destroyer Phoenix]!" Edward shouted, "Phoenix Wings Soar!"

Besides its continuous effect of lowering the opponent's monster's attack and its immortality after being destroyed, [D·hero Phoenix Destroyer] also has the ability to actively destroy one of Edward's cards and one card on the field. After the duel rules are lifted, this effect is manifested by the self-destruction of [D·hero Phoenix Destroyer] to forcibly destroy the opponent's monster. Edward just doesn't believe that this can't defeat the opponent!

[D·hero Destroyer Phoenix] once again transformed into a firebird and launched a suicidal attack, crashing into [Sleeping Giant - Gudu] like a meteorite falling from the sky. Under Edward's expectant gaze—he discovered that the fireball he had placed so much hope in still hadn't even grazed [Sleeping Giant - Gudu]'s skin!?

The Sleeping Giant - Gudu, is even immune to effect destruction?!
Seeing this, Caesar decisively used a [Primal Cyber ​​Dragon] as a substitute to activate [Attack Reflection Device], urgently summoning [Cyber ​​Barrier Dragon]. As soon as it appeared, it used its effect to create a protective barrier, blocking the counterattack of [Sleeping Giant - Gudu].

"No, not only the monster's effect, but also the destruction of the spell card can't destroy it." After trying to use the spell card [Evolution Shockwave] to directly destroy the opponent's monster, but to no avail, Kaiser shook his head at Edward.

Undeterred, Edward once again hitched a ride on Caesar's coattails, unleashing all three of his monsters and holding up a card: "In that case, I'll use this card—my ultimate ace, Bloo-D!"

Suddenly, a "fountain" appeared in the desert, but it was a fountain of blood. The strongest [D·hero Blood Demon-D] appeared here, and as soon as he appeared, he used the dragon head-shaped "blood launcher" on his right arm to spray out a large amount of blood rain, trying to seal the effect of [Sleeping Giant-Gudu].

As a result, [Sleeping Giant - Gudu] looked at the incoming rain of blood needles and opened its mouth to roar fiercely, shattering the rain of blood needles containing the power of "nullification"!

"How is that possible? Even effect negation...is that monster's effect not 'cannot be destroyed,' but rather 'unaffected by other card effects'—it's completely immune?!" Edward looked incredulous. "Is it invincible?" (End of Chapter)