Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

【Dark Knight - Gaia's Origin】【4☆/Land】

[Warrior Race/Effect]

[1600/1200]

“Although it’s a Level 4 monster that can be Normal Summoned directly, [Gaia Origin] has the ability to Special Summon a Level 5 or higher monster from your hand by sending it to the Graveyard. Why not take advantage of it?” Hayato quickly showed off the Level 5 [Infernal Curse Dragon] before sending it to the Graveyard.

Diablo looked at [Dark Knight - Gaia Origin] and became slightly more serious, but still didn't take him seriously: "Level 4 has 1600 attack power, huh? Although it's stronger than [Lion Warlock], it's still no match for my [Danger! Mothman!] with 1800 attack power."

However, at the same time, Diablo was thinking: 'Is he deliberately saving his Normal Summon opportunity by wasting cards in his hand, planning to use the two monsters on the field as tributes to summon a higher-level monster in one go?'

'Hmph, useless, useless. I have a super-powerful continuous trap card, [Super Gravity Net], in my back row. It's an invincible card that can restrict the attacks of any high-level monster. If you summon a high-level monster, you'll fall right into my trap.'

'However, I won't kindly remind them; I'm really looking forward to seeing the expressions on those idiots' faces when the [Supergravity Net] activates!'

Just as Diablo had anticipated, Hayato's purpose in Special Summoning [Dark Knight - Gaia Origin] instead of Normal Summoning was indeed to perform a Superior Summon.

"There are two monsters on the field, one guided by the spirit of light and the other by the spirit of darkness. I will sacrifice these two monsters and request my superior to summon this monster!"

As Hayato raised the card above his head, the water-attribute [Yomi Frog] served as the "Guiding Light" part, while the earth-attribute [Dark Knight - Gaia Origin] helplessly served as the "Guiding Darkness" part, and the forms of the two monsters dissipated.

Instead, a giant dragon, its body divided into black and white, descended into the arena.

"A flawless black and white dragon! The [Dragon of Light and Darkness]! Amazing, absolutely amazing!"

Hayato slammed the monster card onto the Duel Disk and pointed at Diavolo: "The law of victory has been determined!"

"Enter my battle phase!"

Diablo frowned as he looked at the data of the card that appeared alongside the [Dragon of Light and Darkness].

【Dragon of Light and Darkness】【8☆/Light】

[Dragon Clan/Effect]

[2800/2400]

As a Light-attribute Dragon-type monster with a rank of 8☆, the Light and Dark Dragon has 2800 ATK, slightly less than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and 2400 DEF, which is also slightly lower than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. However, it can still be considered a powerful monster with both offensive and defensive capabilities.

Diablo's own monster, [Danger! Ogupug!], with its high DEF of 3000, doesn't need to worry about being destroyed by [Light and Darkness Dragon]. However, he has two monsters in Attack Position, [Danger! Mothman!] and [Danger? Earth Child?]. If [Danger? Earth Child?], with its lowest ATK, is destroyed by [Light and Darkness Dragon], Diablo will suffer 1500 damage.

It doesn't matter. The reason I summoned the [Child of Earth?] was to lure the opponent into attacking and then activate the [Supergravity Net].

"The instant I enter the battle phase, I will activate this face-down card in my back row, the Continuous Trap Card [Gravity Web]!"

Diablo didn't press the button on his Duel Disk to activate a face-down card. Instead, with his voice command, a face-down card in his back field opened automatically, and a large green net flew out from the card image, covering the entire field.

"Hahaha, didn't expect that, did you? I prepared this card in my back row. The effect of [Super Gravity Net] can prevent all monsters with a rating of 4 or higher from attacking!" Diablo said smugly. "Your monster is now completely immobilized!"

The massive green net, seemingly weighing a ton, crashed down from the sky. But as if to humiliate Diablo, the "Super Gravity Net," which crushed his [Danger! Ooggoo!] and [Danger! Mothman!] upon contact, instantly disintegrated before even touching the [Light and Darkness Dragon], thanks to a sweep of its long tail!

At the same time, the attack and defense of the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] also change.

[Dragon of Light and Darkness] [2800/2400→2300/1900]

"What... what's going on?"

"Hehe, don't understand? Don't understand why this situation has occurred? Then let me tell you." Diablo looked at Hayato with confusion, and Hayato didn't keep him in suspense. He crossed his arms and said with a smile, "[Dragon of Light and Darkness] has a forced activation effect. Just now, at the moment your [Super Gravity Net] was activated, at the cost of a 500-point decrease in its own attack and defense, [Dragon of Light and Darkness] nullified the activation of [Super Gravity Net]."

"Although it is a trap card that can exist indefinitely, if even its activation is negated, then [Super Gravity Net] will naturally be sent to the graveyard."

Hayato pointed a finger at Diavolo's [Danger? Child of Earth?] on the field, "And since I'm still in my battle phase, without the restraint of [Supergravity Net], I'm going to attack your [Danger? Child of Earth?] in attack position with [Dragon of Light and Darkness]!"

"Dual Wrists, Zero-Time Clustering!"

As Hayato gave the attack command, his [Dragon of Light and Darkness] hesitated slightly before not exhaling dragon breath to attack. Instead, it mobilized the light and darkness power of its left and right halves of its body, gathering it in its two claws and launching them out as two energy spheres, one black and one white.

Seeing the incoming attack, Diablo gritted his teeth and waved his hand again, ordering, "Then this time I declare a chain attack, activate this face-down card, [Explosive Armor]—"

"Muda muda muda, the power of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] has no limit to once per turn. It also negates the activation of [Explosive Armor] at the cost of reducing attack and defense by 500 points!"

Before Diablo could finish speaking, Hayato commanded the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] to flap its wings, creating a fierce wind that tore the [Explosive Armor] card, which was only half-open, to shreds in the backfield. This time, the [Explosive Armor] was destroyed before it even appeared.

[Dragon of Light and Darkness] [2300/1900→1800/1400]

Although Hayato's [Explosive Armor], which could destroy attacking monsters, was rendered ineffective, Diavolo breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that [Dragon of Light and Darkness] had been weakened again: "What? Although it looks powerful, after being weakened twice, it's just an average monster now."

"Oh!"

The weakened attack of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] landed on Diablo's field, destroying [Danger? Child of Earth?], but the final damage was 1000 points less than Diablo had predicted when it was first summoned.

Diablo: 4000→3500LP

"A mere scratch on the surface. I was even a little worried for that monster." Diablo didn't even flinch after taking a mere 500 points of damage, which was as light as a breeze. He looked disdainfully at Hayato's [Dragon of Light and Darkness] on the field. After negating two trap cards, the tail and wings of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] were no longer clearly black and white, but had turned into a dull gray.

Under the balanced control of the forces of light and darkness, it possesses the power to resist everything, but this balance cannot last. The attack power of the [Dragon of Light and Darkness] has now dropped to only 1800 points. The [Danger! Mothman!] alone is enough to destroy it, and at most, it can only support the use of its effect twice more.

"Your [Dragon of Light and Darkness] can't change its battle position anymore, right? As long as I keep helping it activate its forced activation effect, its attack power will continue to decrease, becoming a weakness that I can exploit. Let me help you reduce its attack power even more." Diablo said, waving his hand to reveal the face-down card in the back row again. "Trap Card [Damage Gate] activated!"

"I can only activate this skill when I take battle damage. I Special Summon one monster from my Graveyard with ATK equal to or less than the amount of damage I took at that time. Since I took 500 battle damage, I can Special Summon [Danger? Antlered Rabbit?] from my Graveyard, which has exactly 500 ATK."

After a pause, Diablo sneered, "But, as you said, the effect of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] is forced to activate, so the effect of [Gate of Damage] will naturally be nullified, and then the attack and defense of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] will decrease."

Hayato shrugged helplessly: "Congratulations, you've even learned to answer first."

As Diablo said, as soon as the [Damage Gate] in his backcourt was opened, the [Light and Darkness Dragon] was passively nullified. As the [Damage Gate] was sent to the graveyard, most of the [Light and Darkness Dragon]'s body turned gray.

[Dragon of Light and Darkness] [1800/1400→1300/900]

"Hmph, it's already on par with the weak [Child of Earth?] . But, it's not over yet, I still have one card in my back row that I can activate!" Diablo didn't back down an inch. Even though he had already reduced the attack power of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] to an extremely weak level, he still activated his last card in the back row, "Trap Card, [Danger Zone of the Unknown Realm]. The effect doesn't matter, it will be negated anyway."

This fourth face-down card completely drained the power of the "Dragon of Light and Darkness". After the two-colored dragon breathed out its breath and negated the card "Danger Zone of the Unknown Realm", its entire body became dull and lifeless, as if it had lost its life force and turned into a stone statue.

[Dragon of Light and Darkness] [1300/900→800/400]

The current [Dragon of Light and Darkness] can no longer even break through the defenses of those weaklings like the [Disruption] monsters! Seeing this, Diablo revealed a smug smile.

However, Hayato also smiled.

"Wow, wow, what a powerful combo! It's so powerful that I almost felt like I was dueling with an AI." Hayato pulled out a card from his hand, then realized he wasn't quite right and corrected himself, "No, that's not quite right either. The AI ​​that Seth created is still quite strong. It feels even weaker than a human. At least an AI can't do what you do when someone just probes with a basic attack and you've used up all your skills."

"Although the battle phase is over, as I said before, this is a pure Gaia deck."

As the card was inserted into the Duel Disk, a card bearing the name "Dragon's Mirror" appeared on Hayato's back row. "The real duel is only just beginning!"

Chapter 690 People with "pot" in their name are rarely good people.

"The magic card [Dragon's Mirror]!" Diablo shouted the name aloud as he watched Hayato play the card, but then a look of confusion crossed his face. "What kind of card is that?"

"If you don't know, what are you doing repeating a grade over there?!"

Off the field, Jonouchi complained with a smug look on his face, "This card is Hayato's most representative card. Unlike regular Fusion Spell Cards, it can directly select the Fusion Materials needed for Dragon Monsters from the field and Graveyard."

"Then, naturally, Hayato will use the two cards from the graveyard, [Dragon of Hellfire Curse] and [Dark Knight - Gaia Origin], as fusion materials to summon [Sky Dragon Knight - Gaia], right!"

Jonouchi offered his speculation as a professional duelist, but was met with Hayato's silence.

"Uh, Hayato, you're going to summon [Sky Dragon Knight - Gaia], right?"

Hearing Jonouchi's words, Honda said helplessly, "Idiot, after all this time you still don't know Hayato's habits? Have you ever seen him not stuffing all sorts of weird cards into his so-called 'pure' decks to play tricks?"

Hayato looked helpless when he heard Honda say that: "Well, that's how it is. The fusion materials I'm going to choose are the [Yomi Frog] from my graveyard and [Summoner - Aleister].

“【Summoner-Aleister】? Is that the card that was sent to the graveyard before because of the effect of 【Hand Elimination】?” Diablo muttered to himself, and then saw the 【Yomi Frog】 that had appeared once before appear in the form of a phantom next to Hayato, while on Hayato’s other side was a hooded sorcerer holding a staff.

"Hey hey~ I'm also a monster from [Gaia]." While complaining about Hayato's bizarre insistence, [Summoner-Aleister] still wanted to ask "Purity, is it even useful?", he knew he had serious business to attend to. He flicked his staff towards the [Dragon Mirror] in Hayato's backfield, and the instant it touched the mirror, a complex and profound magic circle was instantly constructed.

Two cards that have absolutely no connection to the Dragon race, the Summoner Aleister and the Underworld Frog, were entered into the altered Mirror of Dragons. The next moment, the mirror, which was filled with magic circles, shattered!

—Of course, the Ryuki opening theme didn't play.

As the mirror shattered, a pale blue dragon head rose up, drenched in the "rain" of the broken mirror. The pulse of blue dragon blood throbbed between the shattered scales, and a staff once held by the Summoner Aleister was stuck in the dragon's chest!

"When evil appears, vanquish its myriad skills, and quell the evil war with the grace of flowing water... O dragon, in the name of the surging Styx of lamentation, offer me your heart!"

"Fusion Summon! [Summoned Beast - Kokutos]!"

"The stitching is too obvious!"

Amid Malik's complaints, the data for [Summoned Beast - Kokutos] was displayed before Diablo's eyes.

[Summoned Beast - Kokutos] [6☆/Water]

[Dragon/Fusion/Effect]

[1800/2900]

Looking at the giant blue dragon before him, Diablo frowned: "A magician and a frog, how can they turn into a dragon? This isn't a monster duel at all!"

"Powerful swordsmen, ultimate mages, and even superheroes can turn into turtles. You don't need to know too much about Duel Monsters." Hayato said casually, looking at Diavolo, who seemed to still live in an era where "[Fusion] is one monster riding on another monster."

While theoretically Hayato is capable of summoning [Summon - Cokutos] during the first main phase, the effect of [Dragon of Light and Darkness] is indiscriminate and forced to activate. If Hayato uses [Dragon's Mirror] after summoning [Dragon of Light and Darkness], it will be nullified.

While it's not impossible to use the [Yomi Frog] on the field and Alai in the graveyard as fusion materials to first fuse [Summon - Kokutos], just like how no one can resist playing [Blood Demon - D] when there are three monsters on the field to crush the opponent, Hayato simply cannot refuse the superior summon [Dragon of Light and Darkness].

Hayato was planning to use [Summoned Beast - Kokutos] as a starting move for the next turn, but Diablo made a series of confusing moves and actually used up all of his back row cards to achieve four counters of [Dragon of Light and Darkness]. This gave Hayato an advantage, allowing him to start again in Main Phase 2.

Since Hayato has already excluded Arai, it's only natural that his grave would also contain—

"Activate the effect of [Summoning Magic] which exists in my graveyard. Target one banished [Summoner - Aleister], return [Summoning Magic] to the deck, and add [Summoner - Aleister] to my hand."

As Aleister, who had just been banished, was retrieved, Hayato added him to his hand and said, “[Summoning Magic] is the signature skill of [Summoner-Aleister], which allows me to choose the fusion materials needed to Fusion Summon [Summoned Beast] from my hand and both players’ graveyards. [Summoner-Aleister] also has the ability to retrieve [Summoning Magic] from the deck when a Normal Summon is successful.”

"Unfortunately, I can't use a normal summon this turn. Summoning [Summon - Kokutos] is probably my limit."

Hayato glanced at the three cards in his hand, drew two of them, and inserted them into the Spell & Trap Zone. "Therefore, with two cards face down, my turn is temporarily over."

[Hayato: 4000LP, 1 cards in hand]

【Dragon of Light and Darkness】【ATK800】

[Summoned Beast - Kokutos] [DEF2900]

[GaiK] X2

Diablo took a deep breath, his thin, trembling fingers resting lightly on the deck: "My...my turn..."

Oh no, this is really bad. I was so confident that I used all four effects of [Dragon of Light and Darkness], but how come that guy on the other side is so resourceful? He conjured up another monster in the blink of an eye?

The previous five test subjects were quite easy to deal with; they collapsed before I even exerted any effort. So why are we encountering such difficult opponents here?

Lucky? Not at all, I'm incredibly unlucky. Hurry up and get my deck moving! I, Diablo, am going to become the strongest alchemist. How could I possibly be defeated by mere experimental humans in a place like this?

"...Draw a card!" With a nervous heart, Diablo drew the top card of his deck. The moment he saw the card flipped over, an incredibly ecstatic expression appeared on his face.

"Activate the spell card, [Angel's Charity], draw three cards from the top of my deck, then discard two cards from my hand." After drawing three cards, Diablo's expression froze for a moment, then he laughed completely unrestrainedly, "Hmph, hehehehehehe! As expected, I, Diablo, am truly lucky!"