Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Chapter 414 Use your monster to deliver your final defeat

"With no monsters on the field to act as barriers, only an unknown card and a useless ritual monster in your hand, and your face-down cards mostly useless as well, you're doomed to lose!"

【Time Goddess's Mischief】, this Quick-Play Spell Card's effect is to jump the current phase to the start of the next battle phase for the activator, i.e., Kigu Lloyd. Because of this ability, he not only avoids the side effect of returning the 【War Goddesses】 to the deck due to 【War Goddess's Ride】, but also restores the attacking ability of the 【War Goddesses】 that have already attacked once.

Kigu Lloyd felt he had the victory in his grasp, because he believed he had successfully cornered Yugi Muto, a formidable opponent for Seto Kaiba as well.

Although Yugi Muto currently has two cards in his hand and one face-down card, he should have activated a face-down card like Absorb Shield long ago if he could. Even if he had a second Kuriboh in his hand, it could only block one attack and wouldn't do much more.

Although Kigu Lloyd appears somewhat arrogant and conceited, his confidence is based on an absolute certainty of victory. If the game had shown even the slightest bit of leeway in the earlier stages of the battle, Kigu Lloyd would have paused his offensive to preserve the secret of his ultimate move.

Defeating Yugi Muto to advance to the next round is certainly necessary, but Qigu Lloyd's goal has always been Seto Kaiba. If he wants to face Kaiba, who is in a different group, Qigu Lloyd needs to win all the way to the semifinals. The "Time Goddess's Mischief" strategy is one of his trump cards, and he must save it as much as possible before facing Seto Kaiba.

Of course, Kigu Lloyd hadn't expected that Yugi Muto would still retain normal reaction ability despite activating "The Mischief of the Goddess of Time".

However, after witnessing that the game's base score had dwindled to a mere 1200 points, Qigu Lloyd was absolutely certain that his victory was inevitable and that he wouldn't need to wait until the next round to secure it.

Looking at his fully equipped [War Goddesses] on the field, Qigu Lloyd confidently raised his head and arrogantly ordered, "Yugi Muto, with only 1200 life points left, I only need to use this one monster."

"The [War Goddess - Four Women], with an attack power of 1400, launch a direct attack on Yugi Muto and grant me victory!"

Having received orders from Qigu Lloyd, the youngest of the four, the War Goddesses, although unable to ride a warhorse like her older sisters due to her age, still assumed a charging stance with her sword and shield and attacked Yugi.

It was precisely because the [War Goddess - Four Women] deck moved relatively slowly that the game had enough time to exclaim, "The [War Goddess] deck is really amazing! Not only is the synergy between the monsters impressive, but the weapons and equipment are also quite powerful."

"So strong, really too strong."

"Heh, even if you say that, do you think I'll show mercy and let you last another round?" Qigu Lloyd said coldly. "Don't forget, I've already declared my attack, and that's not something you can simply take back!"

The game shook its head: "No, that's not what I meant."

"Chigu Lloyd, although you think you forced me into a corner before activating [Time Goddess's Mischief] to secure victory with a single blow, in reality, it was all part of my calculations!"

"W-what?!"

With a look of surprise and even fear in Qigu Lloyd's eyes, Yugi pressed the face-down activation button on his Duel Disk.

"It was precisely because I knew you had the ability to end a duel in an instant that I tried to hide this card from the very beginning and deliberately exposed myself to danger. And just as I expected, you regarded this card as useless and used the decisive 'Time Goddess's Mischief'."

The cards on the field were revealed, and Qigu Lloyd's expression changed drastically: "That card is!"

"I activate my Trap Card, [Divine Shield - Mirror Power -]!" As the card was activated, Yugi couldn't help but smile, seemingly in a very good mood.

Come to think of it, after suppressing ourselves for so long by pretending to be weak, we can finally hold our heads high. Isn't this the moment we're playing a heavy-hitting deck all for?

Just as Qigu Lloyd himself had said, he could not take back his attack once he had made the declaration. As a smooth, semi-transparent arc shield unfolded in front of Yugi, the [War Goddess - Four Women], who was completely unaware of the approaching danger, handed out the sword in her hand.

The sublime power of Hanno descends here.

In a mere instant, an overwhelming force swept across Qigu Lloyd's field. Starting with the [War Goddess Four Women], which was closest to the point of explosion, Qigu Lloyd's [War Goddess] monsters were successively destroyed by the effect of [Divine Shield - Mirror Power -] and sent to the graveyard with a scream.

As the shockwave gradually dissipated, Yugi calmed down and looked at the smoke and dust that had enveloped the field of Qigu Lloyd. He said calmly, "【Divine Shield - Power of Reflection-】is a Trap Card that can only be activated by the attack declaration of a Chain Monster. Its effect is to destroy all Attack Position monsters on your opponent's field."

"In that case, Qigu Lloyd, all of your [War Goddess] monsters are now—"

"Don't underestimate me, you bastard!"

The game was interrupted by an enraged Qigu Lloyd. He was so confident of victory, so close to winning, he had even declared his intention to win, only to have the game turned around with a single card – what a humiliating situation!

Feeling utterly humiliated and enraged, Qigu Lloyd swung his hand forcefully, glaring fiercely at the game: "Who told you all my monsters were destroyed!"

"Clang~"

As Qigu Lloyd spoke, amidst the gradually dissipating dust, the [Goddess of War - Eldest Daughter] emerged, her sword sheathed and replaced with a golden spear, supporting her body with the spear.

"Linked to your [Divine Shield - Mirror Power -], I've also activated this Quick-Play Spell Card, [Forbidden Lance], from my hand." A card appeared on Kigu Lloyd's Duel Disk. "At the cost of losing 800 ATK until the end of the turn, I've granted [War Goddess - Eldest Daughter] the ability to be unaffected by the effects of Spell/Trap Cards other than [Forbidden Lance]!"

【Goddess of War - Eldest Daughter】【ATK1600→800】

"Even if it only has 800 points of attack power, the humiliation you caused me must be avenged!"

With his cards almost completely depleted and only [War Goddess Eldest Daughter] remaining on the field, the most rational course of action for Kigu Lloyd at this moment would be to end his Battle Phase and then change [War Goddess Eldest Daughter] to Defense Position during his Main Phase 2 to ensure defense, rather than continuing to command her to attack.

However, Qigu Lloyd did it anyway.

Whether you call him impulsive or say he was more emotional than rational, the only word to describe Qigu Lloyd at this moment is "furious." The sense of superiority he had just felt, thinking "the legendary duelists are nothing special, I'll win soon," instantly turned into "everything about me has been calculated against me." The disparity between the two completely shattered Qigu Lloyd's already weak mentality.

"【War Goddess - Eldest Daughter】, attack Yugi Muto directly!" Qigu Lloyd completely ignored the reluctance on his monster's face and arrogantly gave the order, showing no regard for whether such a choice would result in the sacrifice of his monster.

In his mind, although the [Goddess of War] deck has quite rare cards, it is ultimately just a tool.

The eldest daughter of the War Goddess, wielding the Forbidden Holy Lance, sighed helplessly and weakly tugged at the reins of her warhorse, urging it to charge towards Yugi. No matter how unwilling she was, she couldn't defy the rules of Duel Monsters; the golden spear pierced through Yugi's body.

[Game: 1200 → 400 LP]

Seeing his already meager life points drop even further, Qigu Lloyd laughed smugly, his mind twisted as he said, "Weren't you so smug just now, Yugi Muto? Saying things like 'everything was within your calculations,' you're just a lowly person. What right do you have to feel superior?"

"I possess a noble and pure bloodline, making me an absolute elite among humans. How dare a mere inferior person speak so arrogantly above me? They are just as despicable as Seto Kaiba, that guy who got lucky and climbed into the upper class!"

At this moment, Qigu Lloyd had completely put aside his jealousy and disgust towards Kaiba, because for this very moment, he only had Yugi as his enemy. To put it more precisely—Qigu Lloyd had completely merged his dissatisfaction and hatred towards Kaiba into his anger towards Yugi.

At a banquet when Qigu Lloyd was very young, the Schreid Group, controlled by his Schreid family, received an invitation from the Kaiba Group to attend the banquet. There, he met Seto Kaiba, who had just been adopted by Gosaburo Kaiba.

At the time, unaware of the inside story, Kigu Lloyd assumed that Kaiba was also an elite child who had always received a good education, because when Kaiba Gosaburo mentioned that "Kaiba Seto is a genius and very capable in the fields of command and numbers," he felt a desire to befriend and compete with him.

So, while Kaiba Gosaburo was showing off to the other invited guests that the latest firewall used by the Kaiba Group was written by Kaiba Seto, he secretly used his hacking skills to break through the firewall and plant a virus program in the Kaiba Group's internal network to complete the intrusion.

At that moment, when Kigu Lloyd saw Seto Kaiba, who had been wearing a stern face and acting arrogantly since the start of the banquet, show a surprised expression, he was quite pleased.

However, shortly after the banquet ended, just as he left the venue, Qigu Lloyd's personal terminal was overloaded and burned out by a reverse intrusion. Before it burned out, his terminal received a recording from a seahorse—

"Are you, ignorant and fearless rat, excited about breaking through my firewall?"

"Unfortunately, you are just a mediocre talent. You couldn't even see through the disguise I set up, yet you're smugly pleased with yourself."

"They didn't even notice that the program I set up had been used to reverse-engineer their own tools. Hmph, just wait and see what the legal team from Haima Group does."

It wasn't until the circuit board overloaded and burned his skin that Kigu Lloyd realized that his belief that he was the strongest genius was just a one-sided delusion, and that the idea that he was Seto Kaiba's rival was completely unfounded. It was from that moment that the shadow of "Seto Kaiba" began to loom over Kigu Lloyd, who thought himself superior to others.

Kigu Lloyd, who originally intended to befriend Seto Kaiba, who was also a future heir to an arms company, had his initial desire to befriend Kaiba twisted due to his recognition of Kaiba's talent. His goal then became to surpass Kaiba and prove his own abilities.

However, as time went by, and after repeated, overt and covert battles, Kigu Lloyd despairingly discovered that he was not the genius he thought he was. The gap between him and Seto Kaiba not only did not narrow but widened. Especially after learning from his father that Seto Kaiba was not actually Gosaburo Kaiba's biological son but was an adopted "outcast," Kigu Lloyd's obsession with Kaiba turned into jealousy and hatred.

Afterwards, Seto Kaiba and Kyg Lloyd each became the chairman of their respective companies, taking charge of their companies on a different stage. However, the outcome remained unchanged. The Stallion Group, which had been suppressed in the arms industry, had not yet had time to transform, while the Kaiba Group transformed into an entertainment company specializing in Duel Monsters. Kyg Lloyd had painstakingly developed the same virtual projection system, but before he could promote it, the Kaiba Group signed a contract with the Duel Monsters card publisher, Mirage International.

Having been suppressed time and time again, Seto Kaiba has become completely obsessed with Qi Gu Lloyd. Yugi's actions just now can be said to be a distorted version of Kaiba's disdain and contempt for Qi Gu Lloyd.

It's no wonder that Qigu Lloyd would project his resentment towards the seahorse onto the game.

As the life points dropped again, even though it wasn't a dark game, Yugi felt a bit tired, holding two cards in his hand and breathing slightly.

Qigu Lloyd glanced at the game and smiled with pleasure, as if he had already visualized the game as a seahorse: "I will prove that I am the elite, that my talent is superior to yours, and that your struggles will only bring you despair."

"Face one of my cards, end turn."

[Chigu Lloyd: 4000LP, 1 card in hand]

【Goddess of War - Eldest Daughter】【ATK800→1600】

【The Traveler's Trial】【Gaikka】

Kigu Lloyd was quite unhappy that he hadn't been able to end the duel in one round as he had declared, but he was very confident in his defensive lineup.

Despite having only one monster on his field, [War Goddess Eldest Daughter], in Attack Position, he still has [Traveler's Trial] on his back field, which can block monster attacks. Although he guessed the correct answer twice in a row, the stubborn Qigu Lloyd felt that his good luck in the game wouldn't last.

The activation of "Traveler's Trial" requires Kigu Lloyd to have a card in his hand. Therefore, he deliberately left a monster card, "Chariot of Destiny," in his hand to meet the activation condition. At the same time, this is also a trap set by Kigu Lloyd.

The effect of the "War Goddess Ride" card activated by Kigu Lloyd in the previous turn was "Special Summon all War Goddess monsters in your hand". In other words, after activating it, Kigu Lloyd had to play all the War Goddess monsters in his hand that could be Special Summoned, regardless of whether he wanted to or not. At that time, he had four War Goddess monsters in his hand.

Therefore, he summoned four [War Goddess] monsters on the field, leaving only one monster zone. Anyone making a judgment would deduce that "since Qigu Lloyd summoned four [War Goddesses] after [War Goddess Ride] was activated, he must not have any [War Goddess] monsters in his hand," and subconsciously assume that Qigu Lloyd no longer has any monster cards in his hand.

Unfortunately, Qigu Lloyd actually had a monster card in his hand.

Using the card's effect as a distraction, Qigu Lloyd thought himself a genius.

As for what other cards the game might activate to disrupt "Traveler's Trial"? There's even less reason to worry, because the card that Kigu Lloyd set down was "Anubis's Judgment," which has the ability to negate the effect of "destroy a Spell/Trap Card on the field," while simultaneously destroying one of the opponent's face-up monsters and inflicting damage equal to that monster's ATK on the opponent's Life Points.

Furthermore, Qigu Lloyd's base score is now an untouched 4000 points, which is 1000% of the base score of a game with only 400 points, making it impossible for him to lose!

Qigu Lloyd thought smugly, unaware of just how powerful the game of "locking in health" was.

Unaware of Qigu Lloyd's thoughts, Yugi smiled at Yami Yugi beside him to indicate that he was alright, then took a deep breath and drew a card from his deck.

"My turn, draw a card!"

After drawing a card from the deck and adding it to his hand, the player didn't rush to activate it, but instead looked behind him.

Because of the effect of the previous turn's [Divine Shield - Mirror Power -], Qigu Lloyd's three [Valkyrie] monsters were destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, thus adding three more Spell Counters to the Field Spell Card [Chaos Field]. At this moment, phantoms of three Valkyries of varying ages stand behind Yugi.

Yugi calmly declared, "I will activate the effect of the Field Spell Card, [Chaos Field], once per turn, remove the three Spell Counters placed on it, and then I may add one Ritual Spell Card from my Deck to my hand."

Kigu Lloyd scoffed, "You used the effect of a Field Spell Card to collect Ritual Monsters and Ritual Spell Cards first? Hmph, useless. Even with an altar and a sacrifice object, it's all for naught without a tribute."

“Normally, Ritual Spell Cards require Tributing Monsters from the field or hand to Ritual Summon, that’s true.” Hearing Qigu Lloyd’s words, Yugi simply calmly retrieved a card from his deck and inserted it into his Duel Disk. “But the card I activated wasn’t a regular Ritual, it was a [Higher Ritual]!”

"It's called 'Advanced Ritual Summoning' because I can send Normal Monsters from my Deck to the Graveyard until their combined Level equals that of the Ritual Monster!"

As Yugi activated the card "Advanced Ritual," an altar rose on his field, and the Level 4 "Queen Knight" and the third Magnet Monster "Magnet Warrior γ" spontaneously appeared from Yugi's deck and joined the altar.

"The total level is 8 stars. One soul guides darkness, and one soul guides light!" Yugi held the card high in his hand. "Use your sword to cleave through this despairing chaos and pave the way for a future of hope!"

"Ritual Summoning! [Super Warrior - Chaos Warrior]!!"

On the game field, a flash of light appeared, a strike without thought or intention, a slash that controlled even time and space. The Chaos Warrior who created this new form of sword light—the Super Warrior-Chaos Warrior—slowly emerged from the chaos behind the sword light.

【Super Warrior - Chaos Warrior】【8☆/Land】

[Warrior Race/Ritual/Effect]

[3000/2500]

The Chaos Warrior, whose combat power is equivalent to a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, is much more ornate than the Chaos Warrior. His armor is decorated with many magical gems, and the shapes of his armor, shield, and blade have also changed somewhat.

At the same time, he also changed from a level 8 blank Ritual Monster to an Effect Monster.

"【Super Warrior - Chaos Warrior】!?" Qigu Lloyd could clearly feel the pressure emanating from this monster, but he wasn't worried that this monster would give him an advantage in the game. "So what if you summon a monster with attack power comparable to 【Blue-Eyes White Dragon】?"

"No matter how high the attack power is, it's meaningless if you can't hit!"

Although Qigu Lloyd didn't explicitly say it, Yugi could guess what he meant: the Traveler's Trial card in Qigu Lloyd's back row. While Yugi had the courage to guess, he didn't actually want to gamble everything if he could; he was, in fact, a prudence-first.

The bad news is that the card he just drew isn't one that can destroy the back row, so he's still unable to deal with [Traveler's Trial] for the time being; the good news is that the card he drew this turn is much more useful than cards like [Whirlwind].

"I activate the Spell Card, 'Pot of Greed,' and draw two cards from my deck." He placed his finger on the deck, drew two cards, and couldn't help but smile after drawing them. "Yosh, I drew the key cards!"

"Then, I'll activate the effect of [Double Cyclone] in my hand. This card can target one Spell/Trap Card on my field and one Spell/Trap Card on your opponent's field, destroying both targeted cards!" Without hesitation, Yugi inserted [Double Cyclone] into his Duel Disk, pointing his finger towards Qigu Lloyd's back row.

"I've chosen your 'Traveler's Trial' card and my 'Chaos Field' field spell card. Destroy both of them!"