Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

【E·hero Ionizing Pliers】【ATK2600→3200】

[GaiK] X4

Although most monsters in the [E·hero] series are only good at offense and not so good at defense, for example, among the three powerful monsters with an ATK of over 3000 in Jaden's field, both [E·hero Nova] and [E·hero Ionizer] are very strong when attacking. The former can draw cards from the deck unconditionally when destroying a monster, and there is no limit to once per turn. The latter can activate once per turn to destroy a target monster in Attack Position, and it also has a built-in defense piercing effect.

However, having [E·Hero Sunrise Knight] is enough. Once per turn, he can directly target and destroy any card on the field when the [Hero] monster declares an attack. Previously, in order to defeat Amunaeru as quickly as possible, Jaden chose to destroy its backrow face-down card instead of destroying [Alchemy Cauldron - Chaos Link], which unexpectedly triggered a [Cursed Coffin], forcing him to discard a [Mask Change]. Otherwise, he would have ended the duel long ago.

But even now it doesn't matter. All the monsters Amunaeru summoned combined don't have the attack power of any of his [E·hero], so they pose no threat to him whatsoever.

Moreover, I have a full four face-down cards in my back row, including [Hellfire Shot] to deal with effect damage, [Bottomless Trap Hole] to defend against powerful monsters, and [Divine Shield - Mirror Power -] to block attacks. I also have a powerful secret weapon saved for last, so I'm not afraid of the opponent's attacks at all!

—To this day, Jaden understands more and more the guidance Hayato gave him back then. Hayato must have seen the characteristics of the [E·hero] deck many years ago: a lone, one-way, attack-focused, late-game breakthrough deck, strong in offense but weak in defense. That's why he specifically recommended including more defensive trap cards in the deck.

As expected of the Duel King, Jaden easily accomplished what others couldn't. As he delved deeper into the path of "underhanded power," Jaden became increasingly convinced that his decision to include so many Trap Cards in his deck under Hayato's tutelage was absolutely correct. Otherwise, how dangerous would it have been to have only three monsters standing alone on the field?

This is the ultimate understanding of Duel Monsters by the Duel King!

After Special Summoning five Alchemy Beasts with a mere 500 ATK, Amunaeru glanced at Jaden's Life Points and said, "Last turn, in order to retrieve the card you particularly liked, E·hero Bubble Man, you didn't hesitate to pay half of your Life Points to activate that Hero Arrival."

“But Jaden, miracles and magic are never free. To gain something, you must lose something. Even the alchemist’s ability to turn lead into gold must follow the principle of ‘equivalent exchange.’” Pointing at Jaden, Amunaeru continued, “And right now, against these Alchemy Beasts on my field that possess direct attack capabilities, your setup is as naked as a ghost!”

"Ability to attack directly? And all of them!?" Because Amunaeru couldn't enter the battle phase in the first round, Jaden, despite having destroyed the defense position of [Alchemy Beast Silver Moonface], had no idea what its effect was.

I only just realized that all the [Alchemy Beasts] have the same effect: "This card can attack directly." It's simple yet powerful, especially now that Jaden's Life Points are only 2000!

Amunaeru only needs four [Alchemy Beasts] to wipe out Jaden's life points with direct attacks, dealing exactly 2000 points of combat damage, without even giving a fifth chance to attack. In other words, it's practically five...

Anyway, Jaden is suddenly in crisis—if he doesn't have [Divine Shield - Power of Reflection] in his backcourt.

It has to be said that although this Normal Trap Card, known as "Mirror Reflection," is very old, and even one of the earliest Trap Cards to be released, it is still useful and not outdated today, just like "Pot of Greed." Unless the rules of dueling undergo a radical change, it is unlikely that such a powerful card will be rotated out of Standard.

'There's nothing to be afraid of anymore.'

But just as Jaden was confidently waiting for Amunaeru to send a monster at him so that he could trigger [Divine Shield - Mirror Power -], Amunaeru pressed the button on the Duel Disk to activate a face-down card, revealing a card and saying, "Although I don't have any mind-reading abilities, Jaden, you're not thinking things like 'there's nothing to be afraid of,' are you?"

"Is your reliance on your hand cards or your face-down cards in the back row? I think it should be face-down cards in the back row, after all, with the Duel King Hayato Kobayashi as your principal, it will definitely have a great influence on the number of trap cards in your deck."

"However, the card's performance is not the key to the outcome of the duel. Although they are weak individually, now that I have assembled the EARTH [Alchemy Beast Lead Lion], the WATER [Alchemy Beast Mercury Remora], the AWINDS [Alchemy Beast Tin Eagle], and the FIRE [Alchemy Beast Iron Fire Dragon] on my field, they will unleash the power of 'Perfect Harmony' under the coordination of alchemy!"

"Trap Card [Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain] activated!"

Besides the LIGHT-attribute Alchemist Bronze Scale Serpent, four other Alchemist Beasts with different attributes on Amunaeru's field simultaneously emitted a burst of light, guided by the Trap Card revealed in Amunaeru's back row, and converged in one place.

"This card can only be activated when all four attributes of monsters (Earth, Water, Wind, Fire) are on the field. You can choose one of the four effects to apply." Amunaeru held up four fingers. "Destroy all monsters on your opponent's field, destroy all Spell/Trap Cards on your opponent's field, discard two random cards from your opponent's hand, and I draw two cards from my deck."

"I choose the second effect: destroy all Spell & Trap Cards on my opponent's field!"

Instead of targeting the monsters on Jaden's field, the card that was in Jaden's back row was cleared immediately. The effect of "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain" was activated instantly, and a huge meteorite appeared out of thin air and crashed down on Jaden's back row.

This also means that the [Divine Shield - Power of Reflection] on the back field of the Tenth generation will be destroyed and unable to function!

"boom!"

Just like Sydney being hit by a colony satellite, Jaden's back row was wiped out after being hit by a meteorite, leaving not a single card.

However, Amunaeru glanced at the monsters on the field that were suddenly enveloped in a layer of light: "What's that?"

“In board games, you need to think 'one step ahead, two steps ahead, and three steps ahead.' Although I don’t know how to play chess, this saying should also apply to Duel Monsters.” Jaden pulled a card from the Spell & Trap Zone and said, “Although my [Divine Shield - Mirror Power -] in the back row is the best way to counter the [Alchemy Beasts] that can directly attack me, it doesn’t mean that I really only have that one card to rely on.”

"Trap Card [Messenger of Peace], Chain [Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain] to activate, granting my monsters on the field resistance to being destroyed by battle only for this turn, and reducing the battle damage I take this turn to 0."

Judai rubbed his nose and sent the card to the graveyard, saying with a smile, "Although I used this card to guard against Professor Chronos's dueling style, which can deal a lot of damage in one turn and also has the ability to block my card activation during the battle phase, it is also very suitable for dealing with your direct attack 'Alchemy Beast'."

Compared to [Divine Shield - Power of Reflection], which can only be activated during the Battle Phase, [Messenger of Peace] focuses on a defensive, turtling style with no counterattacks. It simply tanks the damage and remains unaffected by battle, making it an effective counter to decks like [Ancient Gear] and even [Cyber ​​Dragon].

At the same time, it also perfectly filled the gap in Jaden's defense, and perfectly countered Amunaeru's [Alchemy Beasts] that had the ability to attack directly, because no matter how much they attacked, they could not deduct even a single point from Jaden, who was protected by the [Messenger of Harmony].

As for why this is considered a countermeasure—

"Summoning a large number of monsters with low attack power but direct attack capabilities in one go is indeed a dangerous dueling style. However, now that I have mitigated the risks with [Messenger of Peace], the only one who needs to bear the risk is you, Amunaeru. Those [Alchemy Beasts] that your attack indicators contain will not even qualify as walls in my next turn and will be quickly wiped out by my [E·Hero]!"

Upon hearing Jaden's words, a soft chuckle came from beneath Amunaeru's mask: "In that case, wouldn't it be better to destroy these monsters and remove them from my field this turn?"

"Ok?"

"Entering my battle phase, I will then attack the monsters on my opponent's field using my Alchemist Beasts!"

Despite having only 100 Life Points, Amunaeru actually sent his Alchemy Beasts, with an attack power of only 500, to attack all the monsters on Jaden's field, whose attack power was at least 3000!

Chapter 1189 Killing Matter, Regenerating Matter

Amunaeru attacked Jaden when its Life Points were a mere 100, and none of the monsters it attacked had an attack power below 3000. This already surprised Jaden, since none of the Alchemy Beasts had an attack power exceeding 500.

But what surprised Jaden even more was yet to come. After announcing the start of the battle phase, Amunaeru actually pressed the button to activate a face-down card, revealing another face-down card on his back field.

"Trap Card [Alchemy Cycle] activated. Until the end phase of the turn it is activated, the original ATK of all face-up monsters on my field becomes 0." The card activated by Amunaeru was neither a card that grants special powers to monsters nor increases their ATK. Instead, it directly reduced the already low ATK of his [Alchemy Beasts] to zero.

[Alchemy Beast - Iron Fire Dragon] [ATK500→0]

[Alchemy Beast - Bronze Scale Python] [ATK500→0]

[Alchemy Beast - Lead Lion] [ATK500→0]

[Alchemy Beast - Tin Eagle] [ATK500→0]

【Alchemy Beast - Mercury Remora】【ATK500→0】

"Actively lowering the attack power of their own monsters... could it be that the Alchemist Beasts are hiding some effect I'm unaware of?" Jaden wondered, glancing at Amunaeru's field filled with Alchemist Beasts that had zero attack power. Nothing particularly noteworthy had happened since he destroyed Alchemist Beast Silver Moonface, but who knew if Amunaeru's current attack with the Alchemist Beasts might trigger something else entirely.

After all, think about it: the inability to normally summon makes it easy to clog your hand, and the summoning conditions are not broad, only allowing special summoning with the corresponding exclusive spell card. Such a "Alchemy Beast" is even more likely to clog your hand than the support cards that Jaden puts in the deck that are exclusive to each "E·hero". In this respect, Jaden and Amunaeru are somewhat similar.

However, the difficulty of using it is completely disproportionate to the strength that the [Alchemy Beasts] have shown so far. Their attack and defense are only 500 points each, and their effects are not things like "skip the opponent's next draw phase after dealing battle damage" or "when a Spell, Trap, or Monster effect is activated, discard a card to negate and destroy it, and increase your own attack by 1000 points". It is just "this card can directly attack the opponent's duelist".

Something's really wrong, it's really, really wrong! Something's definitely not right!

"Let's start with [Alchemy Beast - Mercury Remora]. The target is... [E-Hero Sunrise Warrior] with an attack power of 3100."

Even when launching a suicidal attack, Amunaeru didn't choose the stupidest option—[E·hero Nova Master], which had the effect of allowing Jaden to draw a card from his deck after defeating a monster in battle. Instead, he chose [E·hero Sunrise Warrior] as his target.

With no face-down cards in his back row and no cards to play in his hand, Jaden could only watch helplessly as Amunaeru's [Alchemy Beast - Mercury Remora] crashed into [E. Hero Rising Sun]. The flying fish, made of mercury, instantly vaporized into a cloud of toxic steam upon impacting [E. Hero Rising Sun]'s fiery fist, but it had no effect whatsoever on [E. Hero Rising Sun].

Jaden, who had initially speculated that "the destruction of [Alchemy Beast] might turn it into an Equip Card to weaken monsters," was even more confused by what he saw. However, he still looked at Amunaeru and said, "Since [Alchemy Beast - Mercury Remora] was destroyed in battle, Amunaeru, you will suffer battle damage equal to the difference in attack power between [Alchemy Beast - Mercury Remora] and [E. Hero Sunrise], which is 3100 points."

"That's only natural." Amunaeru calmly replied, watching the mercury vapor drift towards him with a wave of E·hero Sunrise's hand, completely unprepared to be enveloped in the poisonous mist. However, under Jaden's gaze, a seven-colored light suddenly shone from Amunaeru's body. The poisonous mist not only didn't lower his base stats, but he absorbed it all!

【Amunaeru：100→3200LP】

"what?!"

While Judai was puzzled, he suddenly noticed that one of the cards on Amunaeru's back field was flipped up, just like the one on the Alchemy Cycle, revealing its card image.

"What is that card?"

“【Rainbow Life】, just as 【Alchemy Cycle】 activated, I discarded a card to chain-activate this card.” Showing off his last remaining card, Amunaeru said, “As an alchemist, every experiment must be meticulously planned. Did you really think I was recklessly launching a suicidal attack on your monster just now, Jaden?”

"Heh, that's hard to say. After all, you're just a madman obsessed with alchemy." Jaden looked at [Rainbow Life] with a rather troublesome expression. He knew the card's effect because Hayato often used it. Its effect was to replace damage received with an equivalent amount of Life Points.

Generally speaking, this card is used for defense. It is used to chain damage when the opponent is about to deal the maximum damage, absorb damage and restore life points, and interrupt the opponent's other damage. After all, most people don't want the opponent's life points to keep increasing.

However, Amunaeru used this card in combination with the "Alchemy Cycle" card that Jaden also had, in order to maximize the effect of "Rainbow Life" by weakening his own monsters as much as possible. Amunaeru even set this card face down in the previous turn, and did not use it even though his life points were reduced to only 100, just to maximize its effect at this moment.

Furthermore, Jaden remembers that [Alchemy Cycle] not only weakens the attack power of his own monsters, but also has subsequent additional effects—

"The essence of alchemy is equivalent exchange, but its core in practice is to 'kill' matter and then 'regenerate' it. In order to create 'human transmutation' that can serve as a second life, and to create the 'Philosopher's Stone' that extends life, we must 'kill' life in exchange for this miracle of 'regeneration'," Amunaeru said, drawing a card from his deck. "Each time a monster whose original ATK was reduced to 0 by the effect of [Alchemy Cycle] is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, I draw a card from my deck."

"Then, the battle continued, with the remaining four [Alchemy Beasts] still targeting [E·hero Sunrise]!"

Following the Alchemist Beast Mercury Remora, Amunaeru's other Alchemists launched suicidal attacks one by one, causing them to be "killed" and converted into Amunaeru's basic points and hand cards.

Life is predicated on death. Dead matter becomes the best material for the birth of regenerated matter. Killed silver will give birth to gold, and the foundation for forging a sharp sword is killed steel.

Amunaeru kept "killing" the [alchemy beasts] on his field, but extracted rare treasures from the remnants of these metallic beings. In an instant, he raised his life points to a level that left Jaden speechless. At this moment, in Jaden's eyes, he really did seem like a highly skilled alchemist who manipulated matter and life and death.

【Amunaeru：3200→6300→9400→12500→15600LP，手牌2→6】

At the cost of losing three cards in the back row, Amunaeru's life points have reached 15600, and he still has six cards in his hand!

After his plan to directly deplete Jaden's Life Points failed, Amunaeru changed tactics, decisively turning the weakness of his low-attack Alchemy Beasts on the field into an advantage in Life Points. At the same time, he also recovered a large number of cards from his hand. He looked at Jaden and said, "My Battle Phase ends here. However, in my Main Phase Two, I will activate the Spell Cards again: Iron Lamp, Bronze Scales, Lead Compass, Tin Magic Circle, and Mercury Hourglass."

The Alchemy Beasts themselves are extremely weak, which means that the exclusive Spell Cards used to Special Summon them are not limited to once per turn. After all, for most people, being able to draw them is already a good thing, so don't expect too much. And the five cards Amunaeru recovered from the self-destruction of five Alchemy Beasts this round were actually five Spell Cards used to Special Summon Alchemy Beasts.

In the second main phase, he Special Summoned all five monsters that had just been destroyed—of course, these five Alchemy Beasts were all new, since Amunaeru's cards sent to the Graveyard had been banished due to the existence of Alchemy Cauldron - Chaos Refining, and could not be Special Summoned by their corresponding Spell Cards.

【Alchemy Beast - Iron Fire Dragon】【ATK500】

【Alchemy Beast - Bronze Scale Python】【ATK500】

【Alchemy Beast - Lead Lion】【ATK500】

【Alchemy Beast - Tin Eagle】【ATK500】

【Alchemy Beast - Mercury Remora】【ATK500】

Looking at the Alchemy Beasts that have returned to Amunaeru's field, although Jaden can still use his E-Hero to destroy them in battle and inflict a lot of damage on Amunaeru, the situation is now very different due to the Alchemy Cycle and Rainbow Life.

The only saving grace is that the spell cards corresponding to the [Alchemy Beasts] are all normal spell cards, not quick-play spell cards that can be played during the battle phase as soon as they are drawn. Otherwise, Jaden felt that Amunaeru could have accumulated even more Life Points during the battle phase. Even his [E·hero] would have been powerless against such high Life Points.

As Jaden was thinking this, he saw Amunaeru play another card and say, "I've thought about it now, and the warm-up should be over soon. Let's move on to the formal alchemy experiment, Jaden. I activate the magic card, [Black Process - Nigredo]."

"Warm-up? This is just a warm-up?" Jaden glanced at Amunaeru's Life Points and his field full of monsters, unsure what he would be like when he got serious. At the same time, the names of the cards Amunaeru used sounded somewhat familiar to him, as if he had heard them somewhere before.

"If you've ever listened attentively to your teacher's lessons at Daitokuji Temple, you should at least know about the four stages of alchemy, the most famous stage in creating the 'Philosopher's Stone,' right, Judai?" Amunaeru noticed the expression on Judai's face, which was exactly like that of a student who couldn't utter a single word when called upon by the teacher in class. She said in a tone of exasperation, "Including the 'killing' substances I just mentioned, they are all part of the first stage of the four stages, the 'darkening' process, meow."

"These are all important topics for the final exam... no, nothing."

Amunaeru inadvertently revealed not only her verbal tic but also nearly uttered her habitual lines when asking students to highlight key points in class. She quickly stopped talking and instead held up the magic card [Black Process - Nigredo], saying, "The effect of this card is to 'kill' matter in order to prepare for what's to come. It can only be activated when I have [Alchemy Cauldron - Chaos Refining] on my field and I have 0 cards in my hand other than this card."

"I banish all the Alchemy Beasts on my field. For each Alchemy Beast I banish, I can draw two cards from my deck."

Upon hearing this, Judai's expression changed: "Huh?"

He just asked, "How many?!"

Under the effect of [Black Process - Nigredo], the [Alchemy Beasts] that Amunaeru had just fielded followed in the footsteps of their predecessors and were all banished from the field. Amunaeru, who had only one card left in her hand, drew a full ten cards from her deck after playing [Black Process - Nigredo]!

Even with a "Heavenly Treasure Card," the most extreme situation for both sides combined only allows them to draw twelve cards. And you, with just one "Black Process - Nigredo," can draw ten cards? What a fake card!

Compared to the number of cards drawn, even the cost of activating a card—banning a monster—seems rather insignificant.

Looking at the cards in his hand, Amunaeru drew another one and said, "After [Black Process - Nigredo] comes 'Albedo'. The Spell Card [White Process - Albedo] and [Alchemy Cauldron - Chaos Refining] can only be activated if they are on the field. Special Summon a single [Golden Artificial Life Form] from my hand and Deck."

When the card in her hand was sent to the graveyard after activation, it was then banished by the effect of [Alchemy Cauldron - Chaos Refining] and absorbed into the distillation cauldron behind Amunaeru. This time, what emerged from the distillation cauldron was no longer the monster made of impurity metals that had appeared before, but a giant humanoid made of real gold.

[Golden Artificial Life Form] [6☆/Light]

[Warrior Race/Effect]