Hearing Bai Yun'er's words, Munin and Sheng Ning exchanged smiles. Could Runick really be stopped that easily? Obviously not!
The effects resolved in reverse order.
Chain Link 2: Raigeki Break resolved successfully. Hugin's Continuous Effect banished her instead to prevent destruction. This did not start a chain.
Chain Link 1: Runick Fountain's effect resolved. Youye returned three cards and drew three.
"Hugin has that effect?" Bai Yun'er was somewhat surprised by this, then made a note of it.
Wuping merely looked regretfully at Youye's Runick Fountain, showing no other reaction. But the next moment, as Youye spoke, the smile on her face nearly cracked.
"I activate the Quick-Play Spell Runick Flashing Fire from my hand, targeting your Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. Destroy that card, then banish the top two cards of your deck!"
At his words, a massive firearm appeared on Youye's field. It fired countless flaming bullets at Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon. Under that rain-like barrage, the dragon no longer looked as though it stood above the world.
It breathed fire in an attempt to resist, but with a boom, Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon was destroyed and vanished from the field, peacefully lying in the Graveyard.
"Next, I activate the Continuous Spell Messenger of Peace. By its effect, monsters with 1500 or more ATK on both our fields cannot declare attacks!"
"Finally, I set one card and end my turn."
As Youye declared the end of his turn, Munin's eyes immediately lit up. She now understood why Youye had called this a fair playstyle.
Indeed, compared to Youye, her own deck really was a fair playstyle. It was packed full of interaction!
With Youye's setup, protected by floodgates, OTKing him was basically impossible. All she could do was sit in prison and watch as he slowly banished her entire deck.
The only countermeasure was to clear out his archetypal Field Spell and all those floodgates. But how? Even if she drew the extremely hard-to-get Harpie's Feather Duster, Hugin could protect against destruction. Could she banish his entire field instead?
Sheng Ning felt her scalp tingle as she watched. Having dueled Munin before, she knew the real torture had begun.
Bai Yun'er had yet to realize the severity of the situation. She merely thought this defensive setup was impressive, leaving Wuping unable to break through for the time being.
But sweat had already begun to form on Wuping's forehead. There were barely any monsters in her deck with less than 1500 ATK. What proper Duelist brought weak monsters instead of high-ATK ones?
She had never noticed it before, but now that she paid attention, she realized just how disgusting Messenger of Peace was. One card had completely locked her down!
Moreover, she understood how Youye intended to beat her—by banishing her deck until she had no cards left to draw, causing her to lose the Duel!
For a moment, she felt completely numb. On the way here, Bai Yun'er had mentioned more than once that Youye always went for OTKs. Those simple, direct Duels were a completely different matter from this.
"My turn, draw!" Numb as she felt, Wuping still drew.
Looking at the card she had drawn, Wuping was filled with helplessness. She had not drawn anything that could destroy Spells or Traps, so she chose to Normal Summon Red-Eyes Wyvern from her hand, set one card, and end her turn.
She did not want to do this either, but until she drew a card that could destroy Spells or Traps, Messenger of Peace meant she could only sit here in prison.
"My turn, draw!" Youye looked at his card, the corners of his lips rising. "Anything in the Draw Phase?"
"No!" Seeing the look in Youye's eyes, Wuping's helplessness turned into a trace of fear.
Sometimes, losing was not the scary part. What was scary was knowing there was no hope at all, yet still being subjected to relentless torment!
"In the Standby Phase, I pay 100 LP to maintain Messenger of Peace. Then, in Main Phase 1, I activate the Quick-Play Spell Runick Dispelling and choose to Special Summon a Runick monster. I Special Summon the Level 9 Runick Sleipnir in face-up Defense Position!"
"I activate the Quick-Play Spell Runick Freezing Curses, targeting your Red-Eyes Wyvern. Its effects are negated until the end of the turn, then banish the top two cards of your deck!"
"Runick Fountain's effect: I return Freezing Curses and Runick Flashing Fire, then draw two!"
"I Normal Summon the Level 1 Tuner Effect Veiler. I tune him with the Level 9 Sleipnir, allowing me to Special Summon a Level 10 Synchro Monster that meets the requirements from my Extra Deck!"
"Noble white lily!"
"The moment of revolution has arrived!"
"Place victory in my hands!"
"Synchro Summon, Level 10!"
"Bloom, Baronne de Fleur!"
As Youye's words fell, a rain of petals filled the entire shop. Amid the sound of hoofbeats, a female knight clad in white armor appeared on the battlefield astride her warhorse, sword in her right hand, shield in her left, and a red cape draped behind her!
Baronne de Fleur Warrior Type / Synchro / Effect / WIND / Level 10 ATK: 3000; DEF: 2400
After appearing, Baronne de Fleur imperceptibly turned her head slightly, glancing back at Youye from the corner of her eye.
Three years ago, this man had come to her with an Original Card granted by the rules. His record of remaining first ever since he came into contact with Master Duel had left even her impressed enough to give him her card.
She had originally thought he would summon her soon, letting her lead the charge and defeat his opponents. Yet unexpectedly, three full years had passed before he summoned her. If she had not learned from a certain Mermaid that he had not had a deck, she might truly have been disappointed that Youye had abandoned her for three years.
Unlike her complicated feelings, the four women inside the shop were all filled with question marks!
When had Youye obtained this card in real life? How had they not heard even the slightest news of it!?
And wasn't this part of the Fleur Archetype? A weak archetype ranked alongside the Tenyi Archetype, whose strongest known user was merely an Earth-level Duelist. But that Earth-level Duelist had never possessed the Baronne de Fleur before them—at least, no such record existed! (There was some ambiguity over whether Fleur had an archetype. Logically, it did not, but Konami kept doing collaborations with Sherry LeBlanc from 5D's, so I made it one.)
Furthermore, once this monster appeared, the three women all felt a pressure radiating from it. That pressure was at least ten times greater than Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon's. Clearly, this Fleur Archetype monster was an endboard monster far stronger than Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon!
If prying into others' secrets had not been such a taboo, all four women—especially Bai Yun'er—would have wanted to ask where Youye had gotten this card and what effects it possessed.
Just as they were thinking this, Youye spoke!
"Baronne de Fleur's first effect: once per turn, target one card on the field and destroy it. I choose your Red-Eyes Wyvern!"
"Once per turn, targeted card destruction?" Hearing that effect, the four women were slightly surprised. The other three immediately noticed a key detail: this was her first effect, meaning Baronne de Fleur had at least a second effect, and perhaps even a third!
Realizing this, Bai Yun'er had already begun considering how she could get this card from Youye!
Compared to Wuping, Munin, and Sheng Ning, her Swordsoul Archetype could make a Level 10 Synchro with ease as long as Longyuan was in hand. Summoning Baronne de Fleur would be incredibly simple.
The question was how to acquire this card!
While Bai Yun'er's thoughts wandered, Wuping felt increasingly miserable. Not only had her field been cleared, but her opponent had also made a Level 10 Tuner boss monster. And with more and more of her cards being banished, she had few opportunities left!
"I skip the Battle Phase and end my turn. Your turn!" Youye smiled faintly.
Wuping's expression turned grave, as though facing a formidable enemy!
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