Chapter 112: Professional Dragon Slayer

"Booom!!"

The moment Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon unleashed its blazing inferno, the white-robed magician standing at the front, and Rowan behind him, were both swallowed whole by that crimson hellfire.

An explosion rang out from within the flames at once. Skilled White Magician had been destroyed.

"Rowan...!"

Alexis's face went pale at the sight, worry flooding her features as she watched. Even as a bystander taking in the scene from a distance, she could feel the scorching heat radiating off Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack. She could only imagine what kind of injury Rowan would suffer, catching that flame head-on. Even if most of its force had been absorbed by Skilled White Magician, the backlash alone was bound to leave him hurt, and badly.

Even Jaden, Syrus, and the others trapped in the distant orb of light felt their expressions tighten at once.

"Tasting the terror of a Shadow Duel now, are you?" Darkness said, arms crossed, chuckling under his breath.

But it wasn't long before he found himself staring in disbelief as the crimson flames finally faded away completely, and there, revealed the instant the fire cleared, stood Rowan. Still wearing a faint smile. Completely unharmed.

On his right wrist, a faint mark glowing softly, a simple crimson dragon's head sigil, slowly faded back into hiding.

Meanwhile, Rowan's Life Points, which had stood at 4000, ticked down by a rare 1600, settling at 2400.

"Nani?! The attack clearly connected, so how is there no damage at all?!"

Darkness stared at him in shock, unable to believe that not even his clothes had been singed. As the one who'd activated this Shadow Duel, Darkness himself had taken a very real wound just now when Skilled White Magician struck him, leaving a clear gash across his front.

So why could this infuriating kid walk away from Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's flame attack without a scratch?!

[Ding. Darkness's Emotion Points +400.]

"Well now, so that actually works too..."

Hearing the system's pleasant chime, Rowan's expression turned faintly strange. He'd suddenly found one more reason to like Shadow Duels. Compared to an ordinary duel, he reflected, this whole Shadow Duel business really was a far better source of Emotion Points.

Alexis, Jaden, and the others all stood there stunned for a moment, the same thought rising in each of their minds.

Rowan hadn't been hurt because of that flash of red light from the sigil just now... right?

"Hmph. Even if your body can hold out for now, the moment you lose, your soul will be sealed inside this card!"

Darkness gritted his teeth with a growl, glaring at Rowan as he raised the blank card capable of sealing away a soul.

"And next turn, facing down both my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and my Red-Eyes Black Dragon, that will be the moment of your defeat!"

"Well, if you're saying I won't lose until next turn, doesn't that just mean I need to finish you off this turn instead?"

Rowan rubbed his chin, a look of thoughtful curiosity on his face, teasing the man who'd just been talking so tough.

"..." Darkness's whole face went blank.

"..." A bead of cold sweat rolled down the faces of Alexis, Jaden, and the others watching from a distance.

They silently agreed that Rowan deserved the title of logic genius.

If I just take out my opponent, then I can't lose.

Hang on. Hang on just a second here...!

"Heh. Keep talking tough until next turn's hell arrives, kid," Darkness said from behind his black mask, arms crossed, brimming with arrogance. "Before we get to the hell you're describing, let me show you what a dragon-slaying executioner really looks like."

"My turn, draw!"

Seeing his opponent snap back into full, defiant arrogance, Rowan grinned with a touch of mischief and drew a card from the deck atop his Duel Disk. Then, without even glancing at it, he pulled one of the two cards already waiting in his hand and set it on the Duel Disk.

"Activating the Quick-Play Spell from my hand, Destruction Swordsman Fusion!"

"Another new Spell Card?" Alexis, Jaden, and the others couldn't help but look on with curiosity.

Across the field, Darkness's expression darkened. Especially as he stared at the image floating on that Spell Card: a lone figure cutting down a dragon with a massive blade. A bad feeling immediately welled up inside him.

"This card's effect lets me send the Fusion Materials a Fusion Monster needs, whether from my own hand or from either side of the field, straight to the Graveyard. In place of a normal Fusion Summon, I can Special Summon any Fusion Monster with 'Buster Blader' in its name!"

"Nani?! You can use a monster on your opponent's field as Fusion Material?!"

Darkness started at the words.

"But what monster could possibly use Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon or Red-Eyes Black Dragon as Fusion Material?"

Whether it was Alexis or the trio of self-declared academic disasters, Jaden, Syrus, and the rest, all of them wore the same look of baffled surprise. Every one of them, just like Darkness across the field, fixed their eyes on whatever Rowan was about to do next.

"I'll use your Red-Eyes Black Dragon on the field, along with this Buster Blader in my hand, as Fusion Material, and send them both to the Graveyard. Special Summon, Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman!"

The corner of Rowan's mouth curled up as he turned over, between two fingers, the one card that had been sitting quietly in his hand from the very start, revealing it to the field.

"Hraaah!!"

As his words fell, a warrior clad in black armor and wielding a massive dragon-slaying blade materialized at once on the field before him. It leapt upward immediately, soaring together with the dazed, seemingly puppeted Red-Eyes Black Dragon across the field, both vanishing into a swirling fusion vortex of red, yellow, and green that opened above them.

The next instant, wrapped in a burst of dark light, they reshaped into a single dragon-slaying figure, wielding a blade of black and white, its whole body clad in armor banded in platinum and deep blue-black. It descended slowly onto the field before Rowan, sizing up Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon across the way with an air of overwhelming presence, and let out a bloodthirsty little snort.

Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman Level: 8 Attribute: LIGHT ATK: 2800 DEF: 2400

Almost the instant the dragon-slaying monster appeared, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon on Darkness's field let out a mournful whine and began trembling.

Rowan couldn't help but think: now that's what you call the right tool for the job.