Virus

Ritual Summon.

Many card players feel a sense of indescribable complexity when they talk about this summoning method. Its very summoning principle dictates that it's inherently harder to balance than Synchro, Fusion, Xyz, or even Link summons.

If its effects are too strong, it becomes absurd; if they're too weak, it's useless. For a long time, it fluctuated wildly—either becoming oppressively overpowered or so useless that only a small group of loyal fans were drawn in by its card art and lore. It never truly found a middle ground.

In a certain anime that distinguishes dimensions by summoning methods, it didn't even get its own dimension.

But no matter how much you complain, in the early days, it was one of the ways duelists could quickly bring out high-level monsters using the resources in their hand!

"But Ritual Summon requires monsters from your hand or field as tributes to meet its summoning conditions."

Keith stared at the shimmering brilliance and shouted, "You only have one Ritual Monster card left in your hand, and only a four-star fodder monster on the field. There's no way you can summon any powerful monsters like that!"

Generally speaking, that's correct.

Just like early Fusion summons required specific materials, the conditions for Ritual Summon are also very strict.

A Ritual Spell, a Ritual Monster, plus tributes—all these conditions need to be met in hand to succeed.

However…

"My Ritual Spell has already transcended this era."

Of course, he was referring to the Ritual Spell card in his hand.

"Advanced Ritual Art requires no tributes from the hand or field. Instead, you send Normal Monsters from your Deck to the Graveyard until their combined Levels equal the Level of the Ritual Monster you're summoning, then perform a Ritual Summon."

"Directly taking tributes from the Deck?! And it's not even a specifically corresponding Ritual?!"

In this situation, even Keith, despite his extensive knowledge, couldn't help but widen his eyes.

While in the era before he transmigrated, this kind of effect wasn't much to brag about—Advanced Ritual Art even lacked good search methods and was severely limited by Normal Monster cards.

However, here, this card left by Shadi was clearly the best Ritual Spell, bar none!

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

"Now, I'll search."

He pulled out his Deck and began searching.

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

Gradually, phantom images of monsters appeared around the glow.

There was a dwarf riding an otherworldly beast, a small gnome studying glyphs, a small monster resembling a Kuriboh, and a witch, and bones.

"I will send these five monsters, with a combined Level of eight, to the Graveyard, and with them, guide the monster in my hand."

The ritual's radiance engulfed them, and within the light, the faint outline of a magic sword emerged.

But then, the magic sword began to swell, sprouting limbs and flesh, transforming into a fierce blue giant beast.

"Ritual Summon—"

Yu Ming slammed down the blue monster card.

"Level 8—Zera."

"It's a ferocious demon that surpasses Summoned Skull, huh… You really have some incredibly exaggerated cards, kid."

He remembered that in the anime's lore, Zera was a rare card, with only three copies existing worldwide. Even Blue-Eyes White Dragon had one more copy than it.

But, it wasn't particularly outstanding itself.

Zera (Level 8)
Attribute/Dark
Type/Fiend
ATK/2800 DEF/2300

As a Ritual Normal Monster, perhaps the only thing it had going for it was its ATK and DEF, which were only slightly inferior to Blue-Eyes.

But…

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

Keith said. "If this is all you've got, then even two high-ATK monsters on the front won't make a difference."

"It's fine. They've met my requirements."

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

Then…

"I'll end my turn."

"So, that's all you can do, then."

Keith said.

But then, he started to laugh again.

"You can still be proud, kid. Your skill level is definitely championship-worthy out there… you just ran into a stronger opponent, that's all."

Yu Ming was honestly sick of hearing lines like that. Every novel, anime, or TV show he'd ever watched seemed to have this exact trope.

Oh, you're strong, but it's a shame I'm even stronger…

"That sounds like something a middle schooler would say when they're going through a chuunibyou phase. Has Bandit Keith still not graduated from his manga-reading years?"

"Hmph, still as sharp-tongued as ever… But don't forget, you're clearly at a disadvantage now. I don't even need to summon a stronger monster, or even use my hand, to clear out your LP."

"So you do have a high-level monster in your hand, don't you?"

"Tsk…"

Keith didn't respond. He simply placed his hand on his cards.

"Anyway, don't cry when it hurts later."

Of course, Bandit Keith did have something to be proud of.

At least with the 4000 LP system in the anime, his opening move of chipping away at LP was quite intimidating.

From that perspective, Keith certainly lived up to his stats, which were far superior to those of Rex Raptor or Weevil Underwood.

But!

"My turn."

"My duel will be one step faster than yours."

"Draw!"

"Open face-down card."

"Wh—!"

Before Keith could even check the card he drew, he suddenly felt a strange stickiness.

When he came to his senses, he realized that, at some unknown point, the surroundings had become covered in a viscous dark substance.

Drip…

Gurgle…

Amidst the eerie bubbling and dripping sounds, Keith looked straight ahead.

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

"The moment you drew a card, I sacrificed 'Zera,' a monster on my field with over two thousand DEF…"

"You're actively sacrificing a high-level monster?"

"To activate this Trap Card."

"Guh-ooh…"

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

"Poisoned?"

Wait, poisoned?

Before Keith could delve deeper into his thoughts, the ferocious demon had completely dissolved and vanished.

Amidst a cackle like a demon's, Keith finally understood the red card enveloped by the liquid.

"'Crush Card Virus'—check all monsters on your opponent's field, in their hand, and all cards they draw within 3 turns, counting from their turn, and destroy all monsters with 1500 or less DEF among them."

"It's a Virus Card?!"

When the spreading black tide transformed into a liquid swarm of bats and attacked, Keith finally remembered.

"Is this Seto Kaiba's deck destruction strategy?!"