"My turn!"
Ryuzaki drew a card, then immediately revealed it.
"Spell Card, 'Graceful Charity.' Draw three cards from the deck, then discard two cards."
After replacing his hand, he immediately pulled out two more cards.
First, he slapped one of them directly onto his Duel Disk.
"I Special Summon this card, Swift Velociraptor!"
Swift Velociraptor, ATK 1400
"Oh, contestant Ryuzaki opened with a Special Summon!"
Commentator Xiaodu promptly explained it to the audience.
"Swift Velociraptor is a monster card with the ability to be Special Summoned directly from the hand. However, when it is summoned using this ability, there is a Side Effect: the opponent may choose to Special Summon one monster from their Graveyard."
"Of course, the opponent has the right to decide whether to use that effect. And since this is only the first turn, contestant Kira has no monsters in his Graveyard. Naturally, he can't use it." Commentator Sasaki added.
Ryuzaki revealed his second card. "Then comes the second one. I Special Summon Swift Velociraptor Number Two!"
Swift Velociraptor, ATK 1400
Ryuzaki had not been idle during the days he had been out of the public eye. Though he was now called a "Legendary Duelist," that was only because he had crossed paths with Yugi Mutou, Katsuya Jonouchi, and the others back then. Especially Jonouchi—Ryuzaki had once looked down on that nobody, but times had changed. Now, he had fallen so far that he had to live off the fact that he had once been beaten up by Jonouchi.
To return to the top, he had specifically refined his tactics, searching for the strategy best suited to his dragons and dinosaurs.
In the end, he settled on an oppressive strategy centered around Fast Attack, represented by the most famous Dragon User in the world today: Seto Kaiba.
"Dragons are the strongest creatures! A Dragon User must crush the enemy with overwhelming power!"
Ryuzaki shouted.
"And swift Fast Attack is the rhythm best suited for dragons. Feel the power of dragons! Battle! First, Swift Velociraptor attacks that Set Monster!"
The first dinosaur charged forward. The Set monster in Kira's back row flipped face-up, revealing a small red Machine Type unit.
Machina Peacekeeper, DEF 400
Machina was an old archetype born in the Duel Monsters era, first appearing in the Duel Monsters spinoff manga Yu-Gi-Oh! R. Though it had appeared early in this world, it still possessed considerable fighting power in the current environment.
With only four hundred DEF, Machina was naturally shattered with ease. Kira calmly sent it to the Graveyard. "Machina Peacekeeper's Effect Activation.
When this card on the field is destroyed and Sent to Graveyard, I can add one Union Monster from my deck to my hand."
He drew a card from his deck and showed it to Ryuzaki.
"I add the Union Monster 'Machina Mech-Frame' to my hand."
"Machina?" Ryuzaki frowned slightly.
This was an archetype Kira had never used in any of his previous matches.
"He deliberately saved it until the finals? Does that mean none of the decks he used before now were his main deck? Is he really that confident?"
Ryuzaki was somewhat surprised. There were certainly duelists who deliberately hid their true strength by using secondary decks in tournaments, but it was rare to see someone make it all the way to the finals without revealing the real thing.
After all, a duel was decided in a single match. There was no chance to swap decks midway through. If someone held back their main deck only to get eliminated when their backup deck got taken down, then their attempt at playing the weakling would turn them into an actual weakling. They would become a laughingstock in the community for years.
"But it doesn't matter. Before the absolute power of my dinosaurs, there is no difference." Ryuzaki shouted. "Battle continues! Swift Velociraptor Number Two, Direct Attack!"
"I flip my Set Card."
A Trap rose up before Kira.
"Trap Card, Magic Cylinder!"
Ryuzaki was startled. "Magic Cylinder?"
Commentator Sasaki grew excited as well. "Oh, it's Magic Cylinder! The signature Trap once used in the deck of former Duel King Yugi Mutou!
It negates the attacking monster's attack and inflicts damage to the opponent equal to that monster's attack power!"
A card like Magic Cylinder was obviously powerful in the current 4000 Life Point Environment, so its market price was naturally high. But by the GX Era, it was no longer particularly rare. Though it did not get much chance to appear formally in the anime, it had made several minor appearances. It could be seen in Judai's deck while he was building decks in the dormitory, Sho Marufuji had used it against a random opponent, and it even appeared in some other random decks.
It was also one of the few cards Kira's previous self had painstakingly obtained that he considered decent.
Ryuzaki took the reflected damage head-on. His body swayed as he clicked his tongue softly.
Ryuzaki, LP 4000 → LP 2600
"Contestant Fujiki Kira has claimed first blood in the finals!" Commentator Xiaodu said. "Who could have expected Dinosaur Ryuzaki to take such heavy damage on the very first turn!
At this rate, even Ryuzaki might have to get a little serious, wouldn't he?"
Ryuzaki snorted, not particularly bothered.
This much had been within his expectations. He had known from the start that his opponent favored all kinds of traps. Rapidly bringing out two low-Level dinosaurs to attack had partly been meant to test the waters.
Traps were annoying, but he could not avoid triggering them forever. If he never did, they would just stay there. He could not possibly stare at them and wait until the end of time, could he?
Using only a 1400 ATK low-Level monster to draw out a powerful Trap like Magic Cylinder was an acceptable result.
"Then the Battle Phase ends." Ryuzaki continued. "Next, I offer both Swift Velociraptors as Tributes for a Tribute Summon!
Break free from the endless darkness and answer my call—appear here now!
—Level Seven, Tri-Horned Dragon, summon!"
The two Swift Velociraptors vanished into a swirling current. Golden claws and fangs emerged, and the giant demonic dragon's feet crashed down. Under the realistic visual projections and sensory effects, the entire arena seemed to tremble.
Tri-Horned Dragon, ATK 2850
"Tri-Horned Dragon!" Commentator Xiao Du said. "Not only did he launch a fierce two consecutive attacks on the first turn, he has gone even further and summoned such a powerful Tribute Monster!
It seems this is also Ryuzaki's recognition of the challenger's strength—a sign that he intends to fight with everything he has!"
As the demonic dragon appeared, Ryuzaki stood amid the storm of the summon. He felt his momentum surge so high that he seemed to have grown taller.
"Do you see it? This is my new dragon, Tri-Horned Dragon! Stronger than both the Red-Eyes I lost back then and Evil Knight Dragon! It is the symbol of my rebirth from the flames!"
"Mm."
Kira had originally wanted to say that the thing was just a Level Seven nobody.
But on second thought, back in the era before all those Red-Eyes support cards existed, Red-Eyes and Evil Knight Dragon had apparently both been two-Tribute nobodies too.
Fine. He really could not argue with that.
But—
He snapped his fingers.
"I flip my Set Card. Trap Card, Bottomless Trap Hole. When the opponent summons a monster, change that monster to Face-down Defense Position, and it can never change its battle position again."
Put simply—
—I'm sending your Tri-Horned Dragon straight to hell!
The imposing Tri-Horned Dragon had not even found its footing before it slipped and plunged into the massive pit beneath it, never to be seen again.
Ryuzaki: "..."
The two commentators: "..."
Watching Ryuzaki remain frozen in his summoning pose across from him, looking somewhat desolate as a cold breeze swept past, Kira suddenly had a strange feeling.
It was as if he had done every bad thing imaginable.
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