Is this the world of card dealers? Yada thieves!

[Twin Elf] [4-star/Earth] [Mage/Normal] [1900/900]

"Attack power is a whopping 1900 points!" Honda and the others exclaimed in perfect unison with Masashi's actions. "It's practically on par with Hayato's [Death Stalker]!"

So why are you all so impressed by a mere mortal with an attack power of less than 1000? Hayato was utterly bewildered. If you're going to be amazed, you should be marveling at the power of the [Food Soul's Demon Blade], right? Isn't your focus misplaced?

"【Twin Spirits】, destroy the enemy before you for your master! Magic Duet!" With a powerful shout, Masashi waved his hand towards Hayato's 【Guardian Wyvern】 on the field. Along with his declaration, the two 【Twin Spirits】 sisters on his field simultaneously opened their palms, and two balls of magical energy intertwined and spun out.

Until the attack shattered [Defender of the City] into fragments and disappeared from the field, Masashi's eyes remained fixed on the face-down card in Hayato's back row.

Although he outwardly looked down on his opponent, Manjoume Masashi took this duel quite seriously. On one hand, he wanted to defeat his opponent in Duel Monsters, Hayato's specialty, to decide the outcome of their love. On the other hand, the pride of the Manjoume family wouldn't allow him to lose.

Actually, he wasn't very interested in Duel Monsters before, but his third brother Jun seemed to really like them. The deck he used for this duel was specially assembled by his subordinates, but it was a "noble" theme that he customized according to his own preferences, because he thought nobles were very elegant.

He didn't know much about Duel Monsters, but he had seen a video of the National Duel Monster Tournament at home with his younger brother. There was a disgusting guy in the video who liked to use an Insect deck that left a deep impression on him. He really liked to use a Spell Card called "Messiah's Ant Hell" that could only be activated when declaring an attack.

This is why Masashi had been keeping a close eye on Hayato's backline when he declared his attack. However, Hayato hadn't activated any traps by the end of the battle, which relieved Masashi. Come to think of it, his opponent was just an ordinary high school student; how could he possibly have the skillful maneuvers of a professional player?

"That bluffing Kaka was completely useless after all." Speaks smugly, Masashi says, "Your life points are down to three-quarters. I'm going to finish you off in the next three rounds. My turn ends—"

"I will activate this card before the end of your turn."

Hayato interrupted Masashi's end-of-turn declaration and flipped over his face-down card.

"【Time Machine】, its effect is to return the monsters you destroyed this turn to the field in their original form. Return, 【City-Defending Wyvern】!"

On the field, Hayato's face-down card in the back row stood upright, and a huge machine emerged from the card art. As steam billowed from the machine, its front hatch opened, and the "Guardian Wyvern," which had just been destroyed by the "Twin Fairies," flew out and landed on the field. However, unlike its arrogant roar upon entering the field, having failed to defend its "city," the "Guardian Wyvern" merely bared its teeth at the "Twin Fairies" opposite it.

“Useless minions, even if they appear again, they won’t escape the fate of being destroyed,” Masashi said unhappily.

Hayato remained noncommittal: "Well, who knows? Maybe its soul will become fuel for its comrades' counterattack?"

Masashi didn't understand Hayato's words, but Jonouchi and the others realized what Hayato was about to do: "Here it comes, Hayato's super powerful combo!"

【Hayato: 2000LP→1500, 4 cards in hand】【Defending Wyvern ATK 1400】

【正司：2000LP，手卡5→6→5】【双生妖精ATK1900】

Chapter 21 Who exactly is your Tamashi?

"My turn, draw a card!"

With great momentum, Hayato drew a card, and then drew two more cards from his hand, placing them on the dueling platform, just like he had done in his duel with Yugi yesterday.

"I will summon this [Hand of Judgment], and then use it as a target to unleash the [Demon Blade of the Food Souls]!"

The [City Guardian Wyvern] curiously looked at the card that had appeared on the field beside it, wanting to see what its comrade-in-arms looked like. But the card's artwork only emitted a burst of light. In the blinding light, the [City Guardian Wyvern] couldn't help but turn its head, but suddenly a long sword pierced its back.

With the same expression as Tokiomi Tohsaka, [The Castle Guardian] turned around in disbelief and found an arm flying out of thin air from the card art behind him. The arm held a sinister-looking long sword, and it was this sword that pierced [The Castle Guardian]'s chest.

[Hand of Judgment] [3 stars/land] [Warrior/normal] [1400/700]

Filled with resentment and unwillingness, the [City Guardian Wyvern] was destroyed and sent to the graveyard, and that resentment surged into the long sword held in its arm.

"It actually destroyed its own monster? What kind of card is this?" Masashi didn't quite understand the effect of the card "Demon Blade of the Food Soul". In fact, apart from Yugi, who frequently deals with Duel Monsters cards, even Jonouchi needed someone to explain the effect of Hayato's card to him.

Therefore, he was quite puzzled by Hayato's decision to send the "Winged Dragon that guarded the city," which he had finally managed to rescue, back to the graveyard.

"Go in peace, [City-Defending Wyvern], we will avenge you." Hayato, with a "painful expression (I was faking it)," set another card to the back row and said to Seiji, "I will use [Hand of Judgment] to attack your [Twin Spirits]—"

"Idiot, are you an idiot?" Seiji's face was full of sneers. "[Judgment Hand] is just a monster with 1400 attack power. My [Twin Spirits] has a full 500 more attack power than yours. Are you courting death?"

Hayato didn't answer Masashi's question. Instead, he thought seriously for a moment: "Let me think of a name for the move... I've got it! Go, [Hand of Judgment], the light still shines!"

The move used was named after the ultimate attack of a certain "highest" light-attribute holy sword, but the "Hand of Judgment," wielding the "Demon Blade of the Food Soul," exuded an evil, dark aura. The Twin Spirits unwillingly unleashed a magical energy counterattack, but the "Hand of Judgment," wielding the demon blade, severed the energy ball and the Twin Spirits in two with a single stroke.

"How is this possible!" Masashi's eyes widened, his face filled with disbelief. "That was clearly just a weakling with an attack power of 1400!"

[Main Si: 2000LP → 1500LP]

“The [Hand of Judgment] alone does indeed have an attack power of 1400.” Hayato, whose fist was in an attack stance, raised his finger and pointed to the [Demon Blade of the Food Soul] held in the hand of the [Hand of Judgment] on the field. “But you forgot about the [Demon Blade of the Food Soul] I just activated!”

"Its effect is to tribute all Normal Monsters on your field except the Equipped Monster, and then for each Tribute absorbed, the Equipped Monster's ATK increases by 1000."

"That means the [Hand of Judgment] now has an attack power of 2400 points!"

[The Hand of Judgment ATK1400→2400]

"Such a powerful magic card!" Masashi exclaimed in shock.

"Save your surprise for when you lose and talk to yourself. I'm ending my turn, now it's your turn." Hayato scrambled his hand and rubbed his stomach. He'd only eaten a few kinds of bread at home that morning, and now he was a little hungry.

【隼人：1500LP，手卡4 →5 →2】【审判之手ATK2400】

"Damn it, it's my turn!"

Masashi drew a card, looked down at it, paused for a moment, and then laughed: "Hahaha, it seems that even the heavens think I should be the victor. I'll take down that annoying monster of yours right away, Kobayashi Hayato!"

"Summon this monster, then activate the Spell Card!"

A massive, jet-black sword suddenly appeared in the sky above the dueling arena, its malevolent aura almost on par with the [Demon Blade of the Food Soul]. The sword plummeted onto the field, landing precisely in front of the monster card summoned by Masashi.

The monster rose from the card and grabbed the giant sword before it. In an instant, the monster was covered in a dark purple aura, and two eyes could be vaguely seen in the darkness.

"【Sword of Obsession】can simultaneously increase the ATK and DEF of my monsters by 500 points, and after being sent to the Graveyard, it will return to the top of my deck. My obsession is undying!" Masashi glared fiercely at 【Hand of Judgment】, as if that hand were the same groping hand Hayato had on Nosaka Miho's shoulder. "My summoned 【Count Necromancer】 already had 2000 ATK, and with dual weapons..."

"Attack power is 2500 points!"

[Necromancer Count] [5☆/Dark] [Demon/Normal] [2000 →2500/700]

"Cut that nasty hand to shreds and burn it to ashes! Dark Sword Slash!"

The silent undead grinned menacingly. The Swift Sword, which it had been holding in its left hand, was thrown, pinning the Hand of Judgment to its spot. With its right hand wielding the Sword of Obsession, it leaped forward with a slash. After a series of dazzling sword techniques, the Hand of Judgment was chopped to pieces and then burned to ashes by demonic fire.

[Hayato: 1500LP →1400LP]

Despite taking damage to his health, Hayato remained unperturbed, instead looking at the [Necromancer Count] with interest: "I didn't expect you to have such a 'powerful monster,' even if it's a bit ugly."

At least by the current evaluation standards, 2000 points of attack power is already quite good.

The chief, who had defeated the Hand of Judgment with the Necromancer, looked at his hero with great dissatisfaction—he had asked his subordinates to collect those "elegant" or "noble" monsters, and which idiot had stuffed in such an aesthetically unappealing card?

Damn it, once I've dealt with Kobayashi Hayato, I'm going to find out who that person is!

"My turn is over... My turn is over!" Masashi declared, and even waited for Hayato to activate the card he had set down.

[Zhengsi: 1500LP, 5 → 6 → 4 cards in hand]

"Then it's my turn."

Hayato drew a card, but instead of summoning a monster, he activated his face-down card: "I didn't expect you to have some skills. Well then, I'll activate this card and summon my Tamashii!"

"Huh? Is Hayato going to summon [Death Stalker]?" Jonouchi, who was watching, said upon hearing Hayato's words. "But [Death Stalker] only has 900 attack power, right? Even if he uses [Demon Blade of the Soul Eater], it's no match for [Count of the Dead]."

"I think Hayato-kun has his own ideas."

Hayato had previously stated during his duel with Yugi that his Tamashi was the "Death Stalker," so upon hearing his declaration at this moment, everyone assumed he was about to summon the "Death Stalker."

But when Hayato flipped the card over, it showed three ugly monsters dancing.

"Activate the [Disruption Trio]! I will bestow these three powerful monsters upon you!"

Three monsters flew out of the card, none other than [Disruption Yellow/Black/Green], which Hayato had just bought from Kameji Game Shop a few days ago. However, they didn't appear on Hayato's field; instead, they flew straight to Shoji's field, casually found a spot to lie down, and magically produced a beach chair, a parasol, and sunscreen, looking like they were taking a relaxing vacation.

"What disgusting monsters are these? Why are they on my field?!"

Echoing Masashi's roar, Jonouchi couldn't help but ask, "Hayato, who exactly is your Tamashi?!"

"Nonsense! Who says a person can only have one Tamashi? Tamashi is not such an inconvenient thing."

Chapter 22 You think using a blood-draining card is despicable, but what does that have to do with my life-stealing card?

"What you're saying seems to make a lot of sense?" Jonouchi was stunned by Hayato's words. Thinking about it, it did make sense; there wasn't a rule that a person could only have one Soul Card, right?

For example, if someone's Soul Card is Blue-Eyes White Dragon, does it mean that if he fuses three Blue-Eyes to summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, he has sacrificed his Tamashi?

Without continuing his nonsense with Jonouchi, Hayato explained the effect of the [Disruption Trio] card to the frustrated Masashi: "The effect of this card I activated is to summon three 'Disruption Tokens' that cannot be Tributed to the opponent's field."

"Can't Tribute!?" Masashi was getting a little frustrated. Under the current rules, there is no such thing as "tribute" when summoning monsters. Only a few spell card effects require tributes to use. For example, when a monster equipped with [Demon Axe] is destroyed, you can tribute a monster to return [Demon Axe] to the top of the deck.

For example, Hayato's "Demon Blade of the Food Souls" will forcibly release any Normal Monsters on his field after activation.

"So, does that mean these three disgusting monsters, which look like durians that've been sitting out for a week and rotten, were going to keep occupying my spot on the field!?"

Hayato ignored Masashi's strange analogy and added, "Not only that, they also deal 300 points of damage to you when they are destroyed."

"What kind of fake card is that?!" Seiji was already miserable enough looking at [Count Necromancer], but who knew that Hayato would send three more even uglier monsters. "You three dung-like monsters, just die!"

"Hey~"

"Ha~"

"Hiccup~"

The three disruptive monsters, seemingly resting on the beach, were incredibly shameless. They clearly heard Masashi's roar, but pretended not to hear it, acting like they had nothing to lose. In particular, the one-eyed, long-tongued disruptive green even rolled over on the beach chair because the sunlight on the rooftop was too strong.

"hateful!"

Masashi was grinding his teeth in frustration, wishing he could summon his own fists like Hayato and tear the three Disruption Monsters to shreds. However, Hayato wouldn't let his dislike of Disruption Monsters stop him from ending his turn early: "'Disruption Tokens' are all 2-star Beast-type Light monsters with 0 ATK and 1000 DEF. Although destroying one of them can deal damage to you, unfortunately, the monster with the highest ATK in my hand is this one."

Hayato slammed his cards onto the field and summoned [Death Stalker]. Looking at the [Necromancer Count] opposite him, who wielded dual weapons and had an attack power of 2500, and his own weak attack power of 900, the summoned scorpion warrior [Death Stalker] was somewhat confused.

No, that guy over there is clearly not in the same league as me, boss. I think you want me dead.

"Hmph, daring to maintain an attack stance against my [Necromancer Count], you're courting death." Masashi couldn't help but laugh at Hayato's terrible performance. The [Necromancer Count]'s attack power was 2500 points, a full 1600 points higher than the [Death Stalker]'s 900 points, and even higher than Hayato's remaining 1400 points of health.

Wasting your summoning opportunity on summoning weaklings—what's the point of using more equipment magic to boost your attack power? Let that annoying disruptive monster be destroyed; it only deals 300 damage anyway. Next turn, you can easily wipe out its health!

"Oh dear, I'm still 100 points away from disrupting the tokens. What a blunder." Feigning regret, Hayato drew another card from his hand. "Yeah, right. I'm going to activate this spell card."

A magic card appeared on Hayato's field. Before Masashi could even see what card Hayato had activated, a whirlwind suddenly surged from the card art, swirling up the [Disruption Yellow] card that was lying on the beach chair.

[Disruption Black] and [Disruption Green] turned their heads and found that their brother, who had been lazy just now, was now standing next to [Necromancer Count], waving his little fists with great enthusiasm.

"The spell card I activated is [Defense Seal]." Hayato said calmly, holding the spell card on the field. "Based on its effect, it can change one of your Defense Position monsters to face-up Attack Position. I chose 'Disruption Token', which was just summoned to your field."

"The monster has switched to attack mode! This way, Hayato can deal massive damage to that Manjoume in one go! That's great!" Jonouchi exclaimed excitedly, but Yugi was somewhat worried.

"Begin the battle! Go, [Death Stalker], Scarlet Needle!"

The scorpion warrior, standing upright, thrust its stinger out after a brief moment of charging. [Disruption Yellow], who was in a boxer's stance, didn't even have time to react and was instantly killed by [Death Stalker] while still looking bewildered. The 900 points of damage from the battle were fully absorbed by Zheng Si.

[Main Si: 1500LP → 600LP]

It wasn't over yet! The [Disruption Yellow], struck by the tail needle, was too weak to be defeated and flew into the air, its virtual image hurtling towards Masashi's face. An ugly yellow monster wearing disgusting red striped underwear sat on Masashi's face with its rear end. Startled, Masashi threw a punch but missed, only then realizing it was just a virtual image.