Chapter 113: Now This Is What You Call Professionalism!

"Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon?!"

The instant Rowan Special Summoned that Fusion Monster called Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman, Darkness's own Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon began whimpering and trembling right there on the field. His face went rigid with shock.

"Impossible! It's only got a measly 2800 attack, nowhere near my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's 3600!"

"So why is Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon cowering in front of such a 'measly' monster?!"

Darkness gritted his teeth, unable to believe it.

His own Red-Eyes Black Dragon, snatched right out from under him as Fusion Material by Rowan's brutally effective Quick-Play Spell, Destruction Swordsman Fusion, had already been sent to the Graveyard. With one more Dragon-Type monster added there, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack had climbed another 300 points, reaching a full 3600. That should have put it a solid 800 points ahead of whatever that kid had just summoned.

"Naive. Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman is summoned using my Buster Blader from hand and any Dragon-Type monster as Fusion Material. A specialist, built from the ground up. How could it possibly lack the strength to slay a dragon?"

Rowan said this with his signature bright, sunny smile, and in the same breath handed Darkness his own showboating line right back at him. The one about how Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack rose with every Dragon-Type monster in the Graveyard.

"Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman's special effect: as long as this card remains on the field, every Dragon-Type monster my opponent controls is forced into Defense Position, and none of them can activate their effects!"

"What did you say?!"

Darkness's whole body jolted at the words. He watched his own Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon collapse trembling onto the ground, forced down into a defense crouch like some cowering black quail. His face went a shade of green beneath his black mask.

This was a counter. A hard counter. And this time it was even more absurd than Dragon Capture Jar and Tribe-Infecting Virus combined. It was basically as if both of those effects had been welded directly onto a single monster. Not only were all his Dragon-Type monsters locked into Defense Position, their effects were completely shut down too. All that was left to do was wait to be cut down.

Darkness's fists clenched at once. As a Shadow Duelist running a high-attack Dragon deck, the dark spirit currently possessing this body had never once felt this thoroughly cornered.

[Ding. Darkness's Emotion Points +800!]

Hearing the same effect Rowan had just described, even Alexis, and Jaden and Syrus watching from a distance, felt their expressions turn a little strange. They almost found themselves pitying the man across the field going by the name Darkness in this Seven Stars Shadow Duel.

A duelist running an entire deck built around Dragon-Type monsters, running headlong into Rowan's brand new, nightmarishly specific anti-Dragon tech. Turn after turn, his powerful monsters had barely managed to stand in attack position even once.

This wasn't just bad luck anymore.

"Even so, the most you can do this turn is destroy my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. You still can't deal me any real damage."

Darkness forced the words out through gritted teeth. He still had a chance. If he could just find a way to revive Red-Eyes Black Dragon next turn, and draw the Spell Card that paired with it, Inferno Fire Blast, that card's effect alone would let him deal this damned bastard a straight 2400 points of effect damage.

A guaranteed win.

"If you think an executioner capable of wiping out an entire Dragon clan only has that much in him, you're being far too naive."

Rowan snapped his fingers with a crisp pop, giving a little impression of the man across from him, effortless as ever.

"Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman's second effect: whenever its attack exceeds a defending monster's defense, it deals piercing damage for the difference!"

Before Darkness could even finish being irritated, or glance at his own Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's 2000 defense and breathe a small sigh of relief, he heard Rowan's smile widen even further as he casually added one more line.

"And for every single Dragon-Type monster on my opponent's field or in their Graveyard, this card's attack and defense both rise by 1000 points!"

"Nani?!"

At those words, not only did Darkness, his opponent across the field, jerk his head up in disbelief, but Alexis at Rowan's side, along with Jaden and the others watching from a distance, all stared in shock, eyes wide.

"If it gains 1000 attack and defense for every Dragon-Type monster on his field and in his Graveyard, then right now, counting Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon on the field plus the four Dragon-Type monsters already in the Graveyard, that's five in total. Which means a full 5000 point boost to both attack and defense!"

Syrus counted it off on his fingers, and the moment he finished, his eyes went wide enough to nearly pop out of his head.

"Which means Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman's attack is... 7800?!"

Alexis clapped a hand over her mouth in shock as well, staring at the dragon-slaying warrior standing on Rowan's field, sword in hand, finishing the thought in disbelief.

And on Rowan's field, Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman's original 2800 attack began ticking steadily upward amid a chorus of mournful wails and dark red energy rising off every Dragon-Type monster on Darkness's field and in his Graveyard, climbing all the way to a terrifying 7800.

Yeah. This is what "the right tool for the job" looks like.

"7800 attack points?! That's not possible!"

Darkness's face cycled through red, green, and black in rapid succession, running the full spectrum from fresh liver, to poisoned liver, to liver gone completely rotten.

There was really no other way to put it: this was counter play answering the door for more counter play, targeted straight down to its very foundations. Buster Blader, the Dragon Destroyer Swordsman's attack-boosting effect was practically a hard counter to almost every Dragon-Type deck in existence. And his own Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon deck, built entirely around stacking Dragon-Type monsters into the Graveyard to boost its attack, was countered about as hard as a deck could possibly be countered.

After all his careful maneuvering to stack four Dragon-Type monsters into his Graveyard, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon had only gained a total of 1200 attack for the effort. And now this guy named Rowan had summoned a dragon-slaying Fusion Monster that leeched off every bit of that Graveyard investment for free, gaining a full 1000 attack and defense per monster, more than Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon itself had gotten out of them. It didn't even stop at the Graveyard. It counted the Dragon-Type monster sitting right there on the field too.

Darkness found himself questioning the very nature of his existence.

Why did a deck built to counter this hard even exist in this world?!

[Ding. Darkness's Emotion Points +900!]