Above the Open-Air Main Dueling Field, the afterglow of the magical beam packing a full four thousand points gradually faded.
The holographic projectors gave off a faint electrical hum. Then the glaring red "0" on Chazz Princeton's Duel Disk froze in midair.
An eerie silence fell over the entire stadium.
The thousands of Duel Academy students in the stands and the shirtless brawny men from the North Campus holding drumsticks all gaped, their minds still stuck on the scene from a second earlier, unable to process what had happened.
Just seconds ago, Chazz Princeton had still been clutching six freshly drawn cards, with a [Lava Golem] boasting three thousand attack points standing on his field, talking about how he would turn the tables next turn.
How had [Lava Golem] gone scurrying back over to Yūki's side in the blink of an eye?
And how had Chazz Princeton gone flying and ended up flat on his back another blink later, still holding all six cards without having played a single one?!
While the entire audience was still reeling from this sudden, staggering reversal, the first to react were actually the two older Manjome brothers in the second-floor VIP box!
"Cut it! Cut the live feed right now!!"
The eldest brother, Chosaku Manjome, had long since lost his refined politician's smile. His entire face was as white as a wall freshly coated with three layers of whitewash, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. He lunged at the production console like a madman, grabbed the chief director by the collar, and roared hysterically.
"Stop filming! Turn off every camera! Who gave you permission to broadcast this?! Stop it now!!"
Beside him, the second brother, Shoji Manjome, was so frantic that cold sweat covered his head. He could not even spare a