Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

Judging from his respectful demeanor, the person on the other end of the communication channel must also be an important figure.

On the dueling stage, Hayato and Mai had already set up their decks. Mai took three star chips from her gloves and raised her hand to Hayato, saying, "You're only three away from ten now, right? I'll just bet three of them."

"That's quite the talk of a wealthy person. Since you want to help me collect the chips as soon as possible, then I'll gladly accept your offer." Hayato also took three chips off his gloves and placed them on the dueling platform.

"Duel!" x2

[Hayato: 4000LP]

[Peacock Dance: 4000LP]

"I'll take the first turn. My turn, draw!" Hayato drew his card before Mai could, securing the first turn. However, Hayato was a little confused, because he remembered that Mai was originally a dealer, so how come he was faster?

Hayato glanced at his hand and felt a bit annoyed. His long-standing bad hand had returned. He'd had a pretty good run of cards when dueling with Haga, Dark Bakura, and Anasis, so why was he having such a run of bad luck again?

"Activate my Goblin Thief to steal 500 of your Life Points, then summon a monster in face-down defense position, set two cards face down, and end your turn."

The simple and effective Goblin Thief made a long-awaited appearance, creating a 1000-point life point difference for Hayato. Since he went first, Hayato only had to set a few cards on the field before ending his turn.

[Peacock Dance: 4000LP → 3500LP]

[Hayato: 4000LP → 4500LP, 2 cards in hand]

[Inside-side defense position monster]

【Signature Card】【Signature Card】

"It may not look impressive, but its effect is quite powerful." Mai Kujaku looked at Hayato's [Goblin Thief], which had stolen her Life Points. Although Duel Kingdom has rules against using cards that only damage Life Points, such as [Fireball], cards like [Destruction Wheel] and [Goblin Thief], which don't only damage Life Points, are allowed.

"My turn, draw a card!"

After drawing a card from her deck, Mai Kongjaku pondered for a moment before playing it: "Although it's not the best time, your opponent is you after all, so it's never too much to be careful. Activate the Spell Card, [Harpie's Feather Duster]!"

A giant broom appeared on the field, its material seemingly made of feathers from some kind of bird. With a single sweep of the giant broom, a strong gust of wind appeared out of nowhere in Hayato's backcourt, tearing the two cards he had previously covered to shreds.

Before the two cards shattered, Mai, with her excellent eyesight, clearly saw the card names: [Disruption Magic] and [Time Machine].

"Is that the trap that can revive monsters? But what's the other one?" Mai knew about the card [Time Machine], but this was the first time she had seen the other spell card, [Disruption Spell]. "Judging from the name, it should be related to your [Disruption] monsters, right?"

"Just as Ryuzaki said, Mai, you're really good at destroying backrow cards." Although Hayato knew Mai had such powerful field-clearing cards even without Ryuzaki saying it, he couldn't very well say, "You're just like the characters in the anime I've watched." "It's a shame that [Time Machine] was destroyed, but [Disruption Magic] also triggered its effect as a result."

"When this card is sent from the hand or field to the graveyard, I can add three unidentified monsters from my deck to my hand."

After the storm passed, a stage curtain, a common sight on stage, appeared in Hayato's backstage area. Behind the curtain, Mai saw three disgusting monsters that left a deep impression on her—the [Disruption Yellow/Green/Black] trio.

"Cry for my power!"

"Let me make it clear beforehand, I'm very~ strong~!"

"Can I kill you all? You don't need to answer."

Despite uttering some rather cool lines, it couldn't change the fact that without the right terrain, the three monsters were nothing more than weaklings with zero attack power.

Hayato added the three lively creatures to his hand, then shrugged to indicate that his effect was complete and the Peacock Dance could continue.

Chapter 85 Your Monster Is Crying

"You added the [Disruption] monster to your hand so quickly? That's impressive, Hayato-kun." Mai Kujaku wasn't surprised that Hayato had added the [Disruption] brothers to his hand; instead, she smiled, as if she had expected it.

[Hayato: Hand card 2→5]

“However, having already witnessed the [Disruption] monster's ability to switch between offense and defense, I was prepared.” From her hand, Mai Kongju Normal Summoned a monster. “This is the Normal Summoned monster. Come to my field, [Birdman]!”

With a cry of an eagle, a monster that could be more accurately described as a "birdman" than a "bird-faced man" appeared on the peacock dance stage. Covered in feathers, it stood upright with a single horn on its head. The bird-faced man patted its wings on the armor on its torso, looking smug and domineering.

【Bird-faced Man】【4☆/Wind】

[Bird/Beast Race/Effect]

[1600/1600]

"If offense and defense are completely equal, then there's no need to worry about that [Land of Disruption]." Mai Kongque smiled smugly, waving her finger, "[Bird-faced Man], attack that face-down card on Hayato's field, and show it its true colors!"

The bird-faced man received the command, took flight, and swooped down from the sky toward Hayato's face card. With a swipe of its sharp claws, it revealed the true form of the monster that Hayato had covered: the Elf Swordsman.

However, it was clear that the Elf Swordsman's 1200 points of defense was too weak compared to the Bird-faced Man's 1600 points of attack. He was hit in the vital spot by the claws with just one strike and sent to the graveyard.

"Very good, I've won the first round." Because she destroyed the monster, Mai looked a little smug and put two cards from her hand onto the field. "Two cards are set, my turn is over, Hayato."

[Peacock Dance: 3500LP, 2 cards in hand]

【Bird-faced Man】【ATK1600】

【Signature Card】【Signature Card】

"My turn, draw a card." Hayato drew a card and saw that it was [Gaia, the Dark Knight of Gale]. If he only had one card in his hand, it would be a good card, but with this card, he had a total of six cards in his hand, three of which were the [Disruption] trio, which was really a bit of a clog.

"Summon a monster in defensive position, then set one card face down. My turn ends." Having failed to draw powerful card draw cards like [Angel's Charity] and [Pot of Greed], Hayato could only continue his previous turn's strategy. Fortunately, he hadn't set all his face-down cards last turn, otherwise [Harpie's Feather Duster] would have wiped them all out.

[Hayato: 4500LP, 4 cards in hand]

[Inside-side defense position monster]

【GaiKa】

"Huh? Didn't you draw any powerful monsters? What bad luck, little Hayato. My turn, draw a card." Seeing that she had drawn a good card, Mai Kujaku smiled and said, "In that case, I'll make good use of this opportunity."

"I usually summon the Harpie Maiden in my hand, then open my back row face-down card, and unleash the Divine Bird Attack!"

A monster whose appearance far surpassed that of the Bird-faced Man appeared on the Peacock Mai's stage. If one ignored its pink wings, it would simply be an adorable young girl. And the moment it appeared, lightning began to surge around the Harpy Girl.

"The effect of 'Divine Bird Attack' is to Tribute one monster on my field and then destroy two cards on the field. I'm going to destroy your monster and the face-down card in your back row," Mai explained. "Go, 'Divine Bird Attack'!"

Surging lightning swept across Hayato's front and back fields, engulfing both the monster beneath it and the cloaked monster in the back field, destroying them effortlessly in an instant.

"Ugh~" The [Harp Girl] who unleashed the lightning also suffered the backlash of the uncontrollable lightning strike, letting out a painful cry before being destroyed by the overflowing lightning and sent to the graveyard.

"That's too cruel! How could you do that? Your monster is crying, Mai the Peacock." Hayato, being kind-hearted, couldn't bear to hear this and couldn't help but speak up.

"But Anigi, don't you often send monsters away too—"

"Shut up."

"Oh."

Mai couldn't see the Card Monsters, so she didn't know that Hayato had threatened [Disruptor Yellow] with his fist to keep quiet after saying that. She said with a hint of disdain, "What do I care about Card Monsters? For me, all I care about is winning the final victory."

"[Bird-faced Man], the opponent's field is now empty. Initiate direct attack!"

Without any obstruction, the [Bird-faced Man] unleashed a gust of wind, carrying sand and gravel, which slammed into Hayato's dueling platform. The simulated impact transformed into a powerful current, blowing Hayato's hair and clothes.

[Hayato: 4500LP → 2900LP]

Despite being directly attacked, Hayato didn't react as he had before. Instead, he looked at the other end of the dueling ring. Mai was happy that she had made up for the difference in life points when Hayato asked, "Mai, I want to ask you a question. Why did you come to participate in this Duel Kingdom tournament?"

"Is there even a question? Of course, it's for the prize money at the end of the competition." Kong Quewu answered without thinking. "The champion gets a lot of money. With that money, I can live a life without any worries about food and clothing."

"Is that so? But I don't think you're the kind of person who would be troubled by living expenses. After all, putting everything else aside, your jewelry, perfumes, and cosmetics are all designer brands, right?" Hayato said with a smile. "And if you really cared that much about the prize money, wouldn't you have been able to enter the castle by yourself long ago?"

Peacock Dance was somewhat at a loss for words, and said irritably, "So why are you bringing this up now? How boring. I'll set a card face down and end my turn."

[Peacock Dance: 3500LP, 1 cards in hand]

【Bird-faced Man】【ATK1600】

【Signature Card】【Signature Card】

Seeing that Mai didn't want to continue the conversation, Hayato didn't say much, but thought to himself: Is she still hiding her true feelings? It's so reminiscent of that scene. But he's not exactly good at talking people around, so he'd better leave Mai to Jonouchi.

"So, it's my turn." Looking at the super cool "Angel" card that had been added to his hand, Hayato smiled sincerely. "I activate the Spell Card, [Angel's Charity]. I can send two useless cards to the Graveyard in exchange for three new cards."

"Draw a card!"

Chapter 86 Bird-faced Man, Defeated

Watching [Disruption Yellow] and [Disruption Black] being sent to the graveyard, [Disruption Green] was somewhat terrified: "Anige, don't send me to that cold graveyard!"

"Don't worry, I only drew one [Angel's Charity]." Hayato glanced at his hand. Although he still had five cards, it looked much better after losing two resource-consuming [Disruption] monsters. "First, I'll activate this spell card in my hand, [Rough Man's Expectation], to Special Summon one Level 4 or lower Normal Monster from my Deck."

"【Earth Star Swordsman】!"

After the Earth Swordsman appeared on the field, Hayato's actions did not stop there: "Since the field is not very important to either of us, I'll change the field. You shouldn't mind, Miss Mai?"

'Is it that card?' Mai understood what Hayato meant.

The question was merely a polite gesture; without even waiting for Mai's reply, Hayato placed a card into the Field Spell area: "The space for the weaklings to play in is ready. Activate Field Spell: [Disruptive Land]!"

The homeland of the [Disruption] monsters that Mai had seen before reappeared on the field, but this time the [Disruption Homeland] seemed somewhat empty, with no [Disruption] monsters active outside.

"Using the effect of [Disruptive Land], I send [Disruptive Green] from my hand to the Graveyard," Hayato sends [Disruptive Green] to the Graveyard with a "Big brother, you lied to me!" look in its eyes. Hayato then summons [Disruptive Yellow], which had just been sent to the Graveyard, to the field. "Special Summon [Disruptive Yellow] from the Graveyard to my field."

With the appearance of [Disruption Yellow], life began to return to the [Land of Disruption], as if the hidden [Disruption] monsters had seen a familiar face and become bold again. With the help of the [Disruption] monsters, the ATK and DEF of Hayato's [Earth Star Swordsman] and [Disruption Yellow] were converted.

[Disruption - Yellow] [ATK0→1000]

[Earth Star Swordsman] [ATK500→1200]

"I didn't expect that besides the attack/defense conversion effect, this [Disruptive Land] also has the ability to revive [Disruptive] monsters." Mai Kongque secretly noted this newly acquired information in her mind. "But no matter which monster it is, it can't defeat my [Birdman] on the field."

Because the essence of the [Disruptive Land] effect is not an increase in attack power but a conversion between attack power and defense power, the [Bird-faced Man], who is balanced in offense and defense, is not affected at all and still has 1600 points of attack power.

"Damn it, it flies so high, there's no way to interfere!" [Disruption Yellow]'s weapon had changed; this time it was an axe with the words "Holy Axe" written on it, making it seem incredibly powerful. But in reality, Hayato had just seen clearly that it was just a wood-chopping axe, and even the blade was somewhat cracked.

"Neither Earth Swordsman nor Disruption Yellow can surpass Birdman in either attack or defense. But, Miss Mai, I never said I was going to use those two cards to defeat you." Hayato said, turning a card face down. "I'll put one card down, and then I'll only have one card left in my hand."

"And this perfectly fulfills the conditions for this monster's effect!" Hayato revealed his last monster, [Gaia, the Dark Knight of Gale], and summoned it to the field. "When I only have this one monster left in my hand, it can be summoned without tribute!"

"No tribute required!?" Mai was somewhat surprised. This was the first time she had ever seen a monster effect like this. After all, even the rules regarding "Superior Summoning" had only recently been announced by Pegasus's International Illusion Society. She had only started adjusting her deck after receiving advance information from Ryuzaki while still on the ship, and Hayato had already obtained a monster with this effect.

Sure enough, this guy's relationship with Pegasus is definitely not shallow.

"O lone wind knight, come to my field! Normal Summon [Dark Knight of the Gale],"

"[Gaia]!"

The Dark Knight of Gale, who played the decisive role in the previous duel against Anasis, has reappeared. Although its appearance is not much different from the Dark Knight, Mai can feel that the aura of this Gaia is completely different from the previous one.

【Gaia, the Dark Knight of Gale】【ATK2300→2100】

"A monster of this caliber appeared without any tributes, and even with its attack and defense stats reversed, it still possesses this level of combat power." Mai bit her lip. She had 3500 life points, and if all three of Hayato's monsters on the field managed to get through, she would be in danger.

"[Gaia], destroy the [Bird-faced Man]!" Hayato commanded. [Gaia], gun in one hand and reins in the other, sent his warhorse galloping across the arena. Speed ​​is everything; the [Bird-faced Man]'s attack power was a mere 1600 points. [Gaia] destroyed it with a single thrust of his gun, also inflicting 500 points of combat damage on Mai.

[Peacock Dance: 3500LP → 3000LP]