Virus

Ritual Summon.

Many duelists had complicated feelings whenever this summoning method came up. Its very mechanics doomed it to be harder to balance than Synchro, Fusion, Xyz, or even Link Summoning.

If its effects were too strong, it became absurd; if too weak, it was useless. For a long time, it had lurched between extremes—either charging down the road of being utterly obnoxious without looking back, or becoming so weak that it could only win over a small group of die-hard fans through its card art and lore, never truly finding a middle ground.

In that anime where dimensions were divided by summoning methods, it did not even qualify for a dimension of its own.

But no matter how much people complained about it, in the early days, it was one of the ways duelists could use the resources in their hands to quickly bring out high-Level monsters!

"But Ritual Summoning requires monsters in your hand or on the field as sacrifices to meet its summoning conditions."

Watching the flickering radiance, Keith shouted.

"You only have one Ritual Monster left in your hand, and there's only a Level 4 weakling on your field. There's no way you can summon anything powerful like this!"

Normally, that would indeed be true.

Just like early Fusion Summoning required specific materials, Ritual Summoning itself had harsh requirements.

A Ritual Spell, a Ritual Monster, and sacrifices—every one of those conditions had to be gathered in one's hand to achieve it.

But...

"My Ritual Spell has already surpassed this era."

Naturally, he meant the Ritual Spell Card in his hand.

"Advanced Ritual Art requires neither sacrifices from the hand nor the field. It sends Normal Monsters from the Deck to the Graveyard until their total Levels equal that of the Ritual Monster being summoned, allowing a Ritual Summon."

"Finding sacrifices directly from the Deck?! And it isn't even tied to a specific Ritual Monster?!"

Even someone as knowledgeable as Keith could not help widening his eyes in this situation.

In the era before Yu Ming had transmigrated, an effect like this was nothing special. Advanced Ritual Art did not even have many useful search options, and it was heavily restricted by Normal Monster cards.

But here, this card Shadi had left behind was clearly the most useful Ritual Spell, without question!

Thank you, Shadi. I'll personally bring your mom down from outer space.

"Now, I search."

He drew out his Deck and began searching through it.

"'Skull Servant,' 'Dimensional Beast Tamer,' 'Goblin Attack Force,' 'Spirit of the Books,' 'Mystical Elf.'"

Gradually, phantom images of monsters appeared around the light.

There was a dwarf riding a dimensional beast, a little dwarf studying symbols, a tiny monster resembling Kuriboh, as well as a Witch and bones.

"I send these five monsters, totaling eight Levels, to the Graveyard, and use them to guide forth the monster in my hand."

The ritual's radiance swallowed them, and within the light, the silhouette of a demonic sword vaguely appeared.

But then, the demonic sword began to swell, sprouting limbs and flesh as it became a fierce blue beast.

"Ritual Summon—"

Yu Ming slapped down the blue Monster Card.

"Level 8—'Zera.'"

"So it's a savage demon that surpasses Summoned Skull... You really are holding some outrageous cards, kid."

Yu Ming remembered that, according to the anime's setting, Zera was a rare card with only three copies in the entire world. Even Blue-Eyes White Dragon had one more copy than it.

But then again, it was not particularly outstanding on its own.

"Zera (Lv8)"

"Attribute/DARK"

"Type/Fiend"

"ATK/2800 DEF/2300"

As a Ritual Normal Monster, perhaps the only things worth mentioning were its attack and defense, which were slightly inferior to those of the White Dragon.

But...

"You still haven't broken through my Swords of Revealing Light."

Keith spoke.

"If this is all you have, then even two monsters with extremely high attack power on your front line will be useless."

"It's fine. They have already met my requirements."

With no cards left in his hand, Yu Ming merely took a deep breath.

Then...

"I end my turn just like this."

"So that's all you've got."

Keith said.

But then he started laughing again.

"Still, you can take some pride in yourself, kid. Out there, your skill would be enough to win a championship... You simply ran into a stronger opponent."

To be honest, Yu Ming was sick of hearing lines like that. The novels, anime, and TV dramas he had watched before all had scenes like this.

You're strong, but unfortunately, I'm stronger...

"That sounds like something a grade schooler on the street would say during a chuunibyou phase. Mr. Bandit Keith, have you not graduated from the age of reading comics yet?"

"Hmph, still as sharp-tongued as ever... But don't forget, you really are at a disadvantage now. Even if I don't summon a stronger monster, I can empty your Life Points without even needing cards in my hand."

"So you really do have a high-Level monster in your hand, right?"

"Tch..."

Keith did not answer. He merely placed his hand over his cards.

"Anyway, don't cry from the pain later."

Of course, Bandit Keith did have grounds to be proud.

At least under the anime's 4000 Life Points system, his opening Life Point-draining tactic was highly intimidating.

From that perspective, Keith had indeed lived up to his far superior record compared with the likes of Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood.

But!

"My turn."

"My duel is one step faster than yours."

"I draw!"

"Activate my Set Card."

"Wha—"

Before Keith could inspect the card he had drawn, he suddenly felt something strangely viscous.

When he came to his senses, he found that sticky black matter had somehow spread all around him.

Drip.

Gurgle.

Amid those strange bubbling and dripping sounds, Keith looked straight ahead.

Following the source of the viscous liquid, he saw the same slime dripping from the fierce demon's body.

"At the moment you draw, I release Zera, the monster on my field with over 2000 defense, as a sacrifice..."

"You're voluntarily releasing a high-Level monster?"

"To activate this Trap Card."

"Grrrgh..."

Watching the demon gradually collapse, a word that could describe the current scene slowly surfaced in Keith's mind.

"Poisoned?"

Wait, poisoned?

Before Keith could dig any deeper into his memories, the savage demon had completely melted away.

Amid a sinister, demonic cackle, Keith finally saw the red card wrapped in liquid.

"Crush Card Virus—For three turns, counted by the opponent's turns, all monsters on the opponent's field, cards in the opponent's hand, and cards the opponent draws are checked. All monsters among them with 1500 or less defense are destroyed."

"A Virus Card?"

As the spreading black tide transformed into a swarm of liquid bats and came rushing in, Keith finally remembered.

"Seto Kaiba's Deck destruction tactic?!"