Chapter 109: Adding Fuel to the Blood Pressure Explosion

"Dragon Capture Jar?!"

Darkness recoiled visibly.

He knew exactly what that continuous trap did.

Alexis, and the hostage trio in their distant sphere above the lava, all wore the same expression at the same time.

There it is.

This new deck of Rowan's wasn't a straightforward Spellcaster deck after all.

It was already beginning to show its true colors.

...

From the continuous trap on Rowan's field, a brownish ceramic urn carved with a dragon's head pulsed with red energy.

The force shot outward and slammed into Red-Eyes Black Dragon, pressing it down, forcing it into a crouch on the field card beneath it, locked into Defense Position as though pinned by an invisible weight.

"Damn it...!"

Darkness ground his teeth, eyes fixed on Rowan with barely restrained fury.

Why did this person's deck carry traps this precisely designed to shut down Dragon-type monsters?

[Ding!

Darkness's Emotion Points +100!]

He checked his hand. Nothing that could deal with the trap right now.

Unwilling but out of options, he set one card in his back row and ended his turn.

"Set one card. Turn end."

Next turn. Draw a way to destroy that continuous trap, and this would all be over.

Darkness told himself that as he glared across the field.

"My turn. Draw!"

Rowan met the glare with a bright, open smile, then pulled from the top of his deck.

He looked at the card and turned back to Darkness.

"You're probably thinking that all you need to do is destroy my Dragon Capture Jar next turn and things will go back in your favor."

"How about I generously give you one more target to wish you could destroy?"

He placed the drawn card onto his Duel Disk without ceremony.

"Tribe-Infecting Virus, in Defense Position!"

A flash of light brought forth a grotesque purple creature with a fish-like head, crouching into a defensive stance on the field card that materialized beneath it.

Tribe-Infecting Virus Level: 4 Attribute: Water ATK: 1600 DEF: 1000

"Tribe-Infecting Virus...?"

Alexis and Syrus both made the same slightly unsettled expression at the sight of the strange purple monster.

Darkness, across the field, narrowed his eyes.

None of them had heard of this card before.

But just from the name alone, the implication was obvious.

This card's effect almost certainly targeted Dragon-type monsters as well.

"Tribe-Infecting Virus's special effect: by discarding one card from my hand, I can declare a monster type. Every monster of that type currently on the field is destroyed."

"What?!"

Darkness stiffened. Then his jaw clenched, his fists closing tight.

He could already see where this was going.

"The type I'm declaring is, naturally, Dragon-type."

Rowan reached into his three-card hand, selected one, and sent it to the Graveyard with an easy smile.

Another brick in the wall of Alexis's brother's rising blood pressure.

"SCREEEE!"

Tribe-Infecting Virus lit up with a sickly dark-purple glow and unleashed it across the field.

The energy found Red-Eyes Black Dragon, already pinned into Defense Position by the Dragon Capture Jar, and hit it like a poison taking hold.

The dragon thrashed, let out a tortured roar, and exploded into particles.

Gone.

"You absolute...! Another card that specifically dismantles Dragon-type monsters?!"

Darkness's expression darkened further.

The combination was infuriating in its precision.

First, Dragon Capture Jar locked all Dragons into Defense Position, stripping them of any ability to fight back against Tribe-Infecting Virus.

Then Tribe-Infecting Virus wiped the board clean of every Dragon on the field.

Who in the world designs a deck this specifically engineered to destroy Dragon enthusiasts?

Darkness's teeth were locked together.

[Ding!

Darkness's Emotion Points +500!]

"My attack phase isn't over yet. Skilled White Magician, direct attack! Magical Blast!"

Rowan swept his hand forward.

The white-robed figure on his field raised its staff toward the now-empty opposing field, drew in a breath, and fired a concentrated bolt of white magical energy straight across.

It connected.

"Ugh...!"

Darkness staggered under the impact, a grunt of pain escaping before he could stop it.

Visible scorch marks appeared across his black coat, faint burns tracing where the magical energy had struck.

His Life Points dropped from 4000 to 2300, a loss of 1700.

"Turn end."

"Rowan's pulling ahead!"

Jaden, Chumley, and Syrus pressed against the barrier of their sphere with visible excitement.

Then the barrier shifted.

Without warning, a section of the pale-blue sphere thinned and vanished.

Syrus, who had both hands planted directly against that exact section, lurched forward with nothing left to support him.

He nearly toppled headfirst out of the sphere and into the bubbling red magma lake below.

Jaden and Chumley grabbed him at the last second.

"The barrier protecting the hostages is dissolving over time!"

Alexis saw it and felt a spike of alarm.

But she said nothing.

She didn't call out to Rowan, didn't press him.

This was the critical stretch of a shadow duel.

Distracting him now over the hostage situation could lead to something far worse.

She stayed quiet, and watched.