"Heh... heh heh..."
A soft laugh rang out. Sona, who had been sent flying by Reinforced Golem's direct attack, bent over slightly as waves of laughter escaped her.
"Interesting. I never expected you to push me this far when I was only using thirty percent of my strength. Since that's the case, I won't hold back anymore!"
"Draw!"
With a sharp cry, a card appeared before Sona's eyes, and the smile on her face immediately deepened.
"I drew a good card. The real battle starts now! I activate the Magic Card Premature Burial!"
"Come forth, my powerful servant, Egg Dragon!"
A black vortex appeared upon the ground, and Egg Dragon's figure slowly rose from within it.
"By paying 800 Life Points, choose a monster in the Graveyard and equip it to a monster to revive it."
"Egg Dragon, attack the Golem!"
With the attack order given, Egg Dragon charged forward on its thick, stubby legs. It grabbed Reinforced Golem, its eggshell split open, and it opened its huge mouth to swallow Reinforced Golem whole.
The aftershock swept over Xiao Wen, reducing his Life Points by another 600.
He now had 1500 Life Points remaining, while Sona had only 300 left.
Judging by their Life Points, Xiao Wen seemed to hold the advantage. However, Egg Dragon, with its formidable 2200 Attack Points, stood on Sona's field. Unless he dealt with it, he had no way to attack Sona directly.
"I end my turn," Sona said.
Xiao Wen's expression darkened slightly. He drew a card from his deck: Trap Card - Magic Cylinder.
"I set one card and end my turn."
Xiao Wen set the card and ended his turn.
"You aren't even summoning a Monster Card? Looks like you've already given up. In that case, I'll send you on your final journey!"
"Egg Dragon, attack! Reap your opponent's life!"
Egg Dragon charged toward Xiao Wen, raising its fist as it attacked the lone Kuriboh on Xiao Wen's field.
"This is the moment! I activate Trap Card - Magic Cylinder!"
A sharp gleam flashed through Xiao Wen's eyes, and the smile on his face grew wider than ever.
He had no way to deal with Egg Dragon's 2200 Attack Points.
But he did have a way to bypass Egg Dragon and attack the player directly.
And the card he had just set, Magic Cylinder, was what made that possible!
Magic Cylinder · Trap Card Effect: When an opponent's monster declares an attack, negate that attacking monster's attack and inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's Attack Points.
The face-down card flipped up, and an enormous Magic Cylinder appeared, swallowing the charging Egg Dragon in one gulp. At the same time, the other cylinder trembled. Egg Dragon flew out and crashed into Sona, reducing her remaining 300 Life Points to zero.
"You lost."
Xiao Wen spoke calmly.
Even though Sona had spoken harshly to him earlier, he simply could not bring himself to feel any hostility toward her.
Somehow, he could even sense concern hidden within her words.
Her earlier remarks had seemed disdainful, but weren't they also meant to encourage Xiao Wen?
"You won. You may choose one of these cards as a permanent card to use outside Duel City."
The illusory monster phantoms faded away. Sona walked up to Xiao Wen with a faint smile on her calm face.
With a wave of her hand, card after card appeared before Xiao Wen, forming a wall of cards.
However, all the cards faced backward, preventing Xiao Wen from seeing what they were.
"I... I just choose like this?"
Xiao Wen looked at Sona in confusion.
"That's right. People choose cards, but cards also choose their masters. The cards in your hand were gifts from Duel City, not cards you acquired yourself. So, if you want to become the Duel King of Duel City, the first thing you must do is build a deck that belongs to you."
"Build my own deck?"
Xiao Wen murmured, and the image of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon he had summoned that day emerged in his mind.
Its majestic body, its spread wings, and its proud eyes made it seem like a king standing between heaven and earth, indifferent to all existence.
"Can I build a deck entirely made up of monsters as powerful as Blue-Eyes White Dragon?"
"Powerful?" Sona revealed a mocking smile and snorted. "A monster's strength is not true strength. In the world of duels, as long as you can combine Magic Cards, Trap Cards, and Monster Cards properly, even gods can be defeated! And that is the charm of dueling!"
"Draw a card. If you don't hurry, your draw reward will be gone."
Xiao Wen nodded, though Sona's words still echoed through his mind.
In the world of duels, monster attack power did determine victory and defeat most of the time, but that was not absolute.
As long as one believed in one's deck, and could draw the cards one needed, even a group of low-level monsters could defeat high-level monsters with proper combinations!
"In that case, I'll choose this one!"
Xiao Wen swept his gaze across the cards, reached out with one hand, touched one of them, and abruptly pulled it out.
Monster Card - Giant Soldier of Stone Giant Soldier of Stone: Level 4; Warrior/Earth ATK: 100; DEF: 2600 Description: ① When a Magic Card targeting this face-down monster is activated: This card is changed to face-up Defense Position, and that activation is negated. ② When this card is attacked, change it to Attack Position at the end of the Damage Step.
After reading Giant Soldier of Stone's effect, a faint smile appeared on Xiao Wen's face.
"A four-star monster that can be summoned without a tribute and has as much as 2600 Defense Points. With this, my deck's defensive power will increase considerably."
Xiao Wen muttered as he placed Giant Soldier of Stone into his deck.
Ding! NPC Sona is requesting your Duel Disk. Do you wish to give it to her?
A notification sounded. Xiao Wen saw Sona hold out her hand and curl her fingers at him.
"Rookie, give me the Duel Disk. I'll help you unseal the temple."
"The temple? Unseal it?"
Xiao Wen was completely lost and had no idea what she meant, but he still chose to hand over the Duel Disk.
After giving her the Duel Disk, Xiao Wen followed Sona toward the center of Duel City.
This was his first time wandering through Duel City.
It was like a city independent of the outside world. There were NPC residents here, along with shops, restaurants, and places to trade.
Take a good look. These people will become your subjects someday. When you inherit Duel City, I hope you will not forget to lead them out of the curse of nightmares.
Walking ahead of him, Sona watched Xiao Wen from the corner of her eye and silently thought to herself.
"We're here. This is the entrance to the temple."
Sona's steps came to an abrupt halt before an inverted pyramid hanging in the sky at the center of the city.
Xiao Wen did not respond. At that moment, all his attention had been drawn to the three enormous monster statues standing beneath the pyramid.
One name after another emerged in his mind.
The Three Phantom Gods!
Obelisk the Tormentor!
Slifer the Sky Dragon!
The Winged Dragon of Ra!
Before you continue