Yu-Gi-Oh!: Starting with an Underworld Deck, Depressing the World, Part 18

Could it be...

He had adjusted his deck?

That was the secret behind how Jiang He prevented people from countering him!

"I see...!" When Jiang He immediately set two more Trap Cards on his Duel Disk, a look of interested realization appeared on Alexis Rhodes's face!

She had more or less "guessed" what Jiang He was "planning"!

The monster he had summoned face-down might be Royal Magical Library itself.

He had chosen to set it in face-down Defense Position rather than immediately set up a one-turn kill on his first turn.

It was all part of Jiang He's "plan" to make his opponent suspicious, so they wouldn't dare immediately activate a Trap Card meant to counter it and destroy it!

And Jiang He's two set Trap Cards were his means of negating his opponent's traps and ensuring Royal Magical Library wouldn't be destroyed!

After all, Trap Cards couldn't be activated immediately. They first had to be set, and could only be activated once the opponent's next turn began!

Alexis felt she had completely figured out Jiang He's "secret" and "plan"!

Now, she just had to test it!

What she had never considered was that there might be another possibility...

Jiang He had already changed his deck.

Chapter 27: Alexis Rhodes's Flashy Play

"Your plan is quite good. It might work on other, weaker duelists, but I'm not someone you can fool so easily!"

Alexis smiled confidently at Jiang He as she spoke.

Her eyes shone with shrewdness and fighting spirit!

"As expected of Lady Alexis!" Alexis's two attendant best friends, Jasmine and Mindy, immediately chimed in with admiring praise from behind her.

Watching them, Jiang He fell silent, his expression turning strange.

For a moment, he wasn't sure whether he should remind Alexis Rhodes.

Actually,

he had already changed his deck...

"My turn, draw!"

Alexis drew a card from the deck on her Duel Disk, then revealed it with a confident smile.

"I activate the Spell Card Polymerization from my hand!"

"I fuse Blade Skater from my hand with Cyber Gymnast on the field!"

"I summon Cyber Blader!"

As Alexis spoke, the figure of a bald female skater in white and purple appeared.

Together with Cyber Gymnast on the lake before Alexis, she flew into a yellow, blue, and green vortex above!

Soon, in a flash of light, a mature woman with long black hair appeared from the swirling cyclone, wearing a revealing outfit of fiery red and white.

A pair of sharp skate blades on her feet, she landed on the lake before Alexis Rhodes!

"Hmph!" The fiery-red-clad, long-haired woman had barely appeared when she let out a cry full of fighting spirit.

[Cyber Blader]

[Level: 7]

[Attribute: Earth]

[Attack: 2100]

[Defense: 800]

"Then I won't hold back. Let me test my guess!" Alexis said, looking at Jiang He with a curl of her lips.

Then she raised a hand and gave the order.

"Cyber Blader, crush that face-down monster! Ice Blade Cyclone!"

"Ha!"

As Alexis's words fell, Cyber Blader gave a sharp cry from the lake before her.

She spun in an instant, her entire body becoming a sharp, top-shaped tornado that swept toward the giant face-down card Jiang He had summoned!

"Hum!!"

Struck by the attack, the giant card immediately flipped over.

A golden light shone, faintly summoning a blurry figure.

Before anyone could see it clearly, a "bang" of explosive fire and smoke temporarily obscured it.

After attacking, Cyber Blader quickly returned to the lake on Alexis's side of the field.

Completely unharmed.

"That's it, Miss Alexis Rhodes. Defeat the slacker boy just like that and teach him a lesson for his arrogance." Professor Crowler cheered happily from a distance.

He nearly let his voice carry all the way over to Jiang He and the others.

"Heh heh." Alexis also wore a confident smile as she watched Jiang He's reaction.

After "guessing" that Jiang He's monster, summoned face-down as a decoy, was Royal Magical Library, and that he had set two cards to counter the trap she had prepared against it,

she had chosen a tactic that could easily "break" Jiang He's secret!

She would attack directly with a powerful monster!

She would make Jiang He watch helplessly as the Royal Magical Library he had set as a decoy was destroyed!

And Cyber Blader's 2,100 attack points were just enough to exceed the formidable 2,000 defense points of Jiang He's Royal Magical Library!

Seeing Jiang He's seemingly "surprised" expression, Alexis Rhodes smiled even more broadly.

That meant victory was hers!

She still had a trap in her hand specifically meant to destroy monsters, in addition to the two she had already set on the field.

Even if Jiang He summoned another Royal Magical Library, she could destroy it immediately, giving him no chance at all to set up a one-turn kill!

"A-Alexis!"

Just then, Alexis Rhodes's two attendant best friends pointed in shock at the smoke gradually clearing on Jiang He's side and called out a warning to her.

As the fire and smoke from the explosion quickly vanished,

they revealed an elven swordsman in a black cape, holding a sword in Defense Position!

He was still crouched on the giant horizontal card, completely unharmed!

It wasn't Royal Magical Library at all!

[Celtic Guardian of Noble Arms]

[Level: 4]

[Attribute: Earth]

[Attack: 1400]

[Defense: 1200]

"That's... Celtic Guardian of Noble Arms?!"

The smile that hadn't yet fully faded from Alexis Rhodes's face froze, and she stood there dumbfounded!

It wasn't just Alexis and her two attendant best friends behind her.

Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale, and Chumley also recognized him immediately!

The monster card Jiang He had used was simply too famous.

It was one of the common monsters that Yugi Muto, the King of Games, had often used in duels before!

"Why did the slacker boy set this monster?!" Professor Crowler was also dumbfounded as he watched from afar.

Was this really some kind of one-turn-kill Exodia the Forbidden One deck?!

"Celtic Guardian of Noble Arms's effect prevents him from being destroyed in battle by monsters with 1,900 or more attack points, so Cyber Blader's attack was effectively useless," Jiang He said, spreading his hands.

He had never expected Alexis Rhodes to pull such a flashy move.

She had gone out of her way to fuse a Cyber Blader with 2,100 attack points, then attacked his monster with it.

"..." Alexis and her two friends.

"..." Jaden Yuki, Crowler, and the others had also realized this extremely awkward point.

"Blade Skater, one of the Fusion Materials for Cyber Blader, originally had exactly 1,400 attack points."

"She could have destroyed Celtic Guard Who Fools the Opponent.

If Alexis hadn't fused them just now and had summoned Blade Skater to attack instead..."

"It looks like she could have destroyed the Celtic Guard Who Fools the Opponent Jiang He set,

and then used the other Fusion Material, Cyber Prima, to attack Jiang He directly?"

Syrus Truesdale spoke as though to himself, describing the situation he had just considered.

As soon as he said it,

Alexis Rhodes, who had already guessed the situation completely wrong, turned her play into a stupid move, and was feeling somewhat embarrassed and annoyed,

suffered another critical hit!

[Ding! Alexis's emotion points +300.]

Hearing the system notification, Jiang He even felt that

the emotion points he earned from Alexis in this duel wouldn't be much fewer than what he had earned from Chazz Princeton yesterday...

Chapter 28: Is This Really an Exodia the Forbidden One Deck?!

"You pervert who peeped on the girls' dorm, stop sitting there saying what she should have done after the fact! Who could have guessed the monster this guy set would happen to be Celtic Guardian of Noble Arms?!"

"Yeah, exactly! Normally, summoning a stronger monster and then attacking is the standard dueling strategy, right?"

Hearing Syrus Truesdale muttering to himself over there, Jasmine and Mindy immediately fired back.

They argued on Alexis Rhodes's behalf!

"There's no need to explain, Jasmine, Mindy. This time, I really did make a mistake in my judgment!"

But Alexis immediately raised a hand to stop her two attendant best friends behind her from continuing to defend her.

Then she looked at Jiang He, the fighting spirit in her eyes burning even more fiercely,

and said seriously, "This guy must have carefully adjusted his deck and added quite a few monsters like Celtic Guardian of Noble Arms."

"He didn't just add one or two Trap Cards like I guessed before!"