Chapter 125: Even the Villains Despise This “Hostage”

The very next moment, Professor Crowler, having just drawn his card, glanced at it and froze for a full second, as if his heart had simply stopped.

Cold sweat came pouring down again immediately. Then, without further hesitation, he made the decisive choice to stop forcing himself to stay conscious, and passed out on the spot, collapsing face-down on the ground.

...

Jaden, Kaiser Zane Truesdale, Chazz, and the rest. Camula. Even Rowan himself couldn't help but blank out for a second, his face twitching as he watched.

As for this ridiculous stunt the golden mushroom-head professor had just pulled, all Rowan could say was: as expected of you.

Through the screen, Rowan, Alexis, and the others had no trouble making out the card that had slipped from Professor Crowler's hand and now lay beside him, the one he'd just drawn.

It was a Level 2 monster with a proud, dignified 100 ATK.

"Since he's completely passed out and can't continue the duel, I'll go ahead and claim victory in this Shadow Duel."

"Although, even if he hadn't passed out, the win was already mine for certain..."

Camula said, sounding rather at a loss for words at the sight.

On the field before her, the figure of Vampire Genesis faded away the instant the Shadow Duel was ruled over.

Camula then walked straight over to where Professor Crowler lay completely unconscious on the ground.

She reached down and removed the Spirit Key pendant he'd been safeguarding, then, using her own vampiric power, made it vanish into thin air amid a faint glow.

"Next, according to the rules of a Shadow Duel, the loser will be sealed inside this doll."

Camula said, the corner of her mouth curling upward as she looked toward Jaden and Bastion, pulling out that plain brown doll, smaller than the palm of a hand, from before.

"Bzzzz!!"

The instant her words fell, a dark violet glow of dark energy lit up over it.

The unconscious figure of Professor Crowler, still lying face-down on the ground, began to fade away within that same dark violet glow, growing fainter and fainter until it disappeared entirely.

Until, in the blink of an eye, the doll's face took on that classic Pot of Greed grimace so characteristic of the mushroom-head professor, dressed now in matching blue robes.

The Professor Crowler who had been lying on the ground was now completely gone.

He had clearly been sealed inside the doll.

"Professor Crowler has actually been sealed inside a doll!"

Kaiser Zane Truesdale, Chazz, and the others all stared at the scene in shock.

Even Nurse Fontaine and the others watching through the screen back at the infirmary clutched their mouths in shock, their faces going pale.

Although they had already heard some description of Shadow Duels before, from what Rowan and Alexis had told them, when Atticus Rhodes had lost to Rowan earlier, the man himself had remained.

It was only the mask that had been sealed away.

That had left them without much of a real sense of what it meant, until now.

Only now, seeing with their own eyes Professor Crowler sealed away inside that doll, did they truly come to grasp just how terrifying a Shadow Duel really was.

Beyond the shock, everyone shared one more thought in common: the doll Professor Crowler had turned into looked absolutely hideous.

"I do hope my next opponent will be a bit more capable. It'd be even better if it were that boy who just took down a Darkness duelist."

Seeing the shocked looks on Chazz, Jaden, and the others' faces, Camula laughed smugly, tossing out the provocation.

Then, with a faint look of distaste, she glanced down at the Pot of Greed-faced doll in her hand that Professor Crowler had become.

After a brief moment of hesitation, she ultimately decided against taking it hostage, and with a casual flick, tossed it back onto the ground.

"..." went the doll that was Professor Crowler.

Watching this, Rowan and the others found their expressions turning rather strange.

Not even a Shadow Duelist wanted to take him hostage.

Was that supposed to be a good thing, or a bad one?

At the same time, Camula's red-gowned figure quickly withdrew, vanishing into the crimson carpet stretched across the lake and the thick fog beyond.

All that remained behind was her voice.

"If you want to break Professor Crowler's seal, I'll be waiting for you to come challenge me again tomorrow. Hmph!"

"This vampire sure knows how to take care of herself... knows better than to stay up all night gambling."

Rowan couldn't help muttering the jab as he watched.

He'd figured that after all that provoking, Camula was planning to keep the duels going.

He'd already gotten himself ready to rush over there with Alexis and the others and deliver her a little cheerful send-off.

Turns out this vampire woman was so serious about her health regimen that she'd simply called it a night early instead.

Still, that worked out rather conveniently, since it bought him plenty of time.

He could wait for the System's exchange options to refresh after tonight, then tally up exactly how many Emotion Points he'd earned from that duel with his future brother-in-law... Alexis's brother, that is.

And take a look at what kind of new, thoroughly cursed deck he could exchange for while he was at it.

Something to give Camula a rude little wake-up call, and open her eyes a bit.

And, while he was at it, introduce a cold-blooded creature like a vampire to the brand new experience of high blood pressure.

Rowan almost found himself touched by his own selfless, considerate good nature.

Not long after, Jaden, Bastion, Kaiser Zane Truesdale, and the others made their way back from the lakeside, gathering together at the infirmary.

They brought back with them the ugly little doll that Professor Crowler had become.

"Professor Crowler's not actually dead in this state, right?" Chazz asked, holding up the doll.

The others frowned as well, looking at the doll with some concern.

"If you're really that worried, try holding a lit match under its feet. That'll tell you the answer soon enough."

Rowan said, gleefully egging him on with the nastiest idea he could come up with on the spot.

"I-I'm not dead, you know!"

The doll that was Professor Crowler lay perfectly still, but a strange, muffled voice came faintly from within it, panicking as it rushed to prove itself, terrified that Chazz and the others might actually take Rowan's terrible suggestion seriously and try lighting a match to test it.

He was, after all, genuinely stuck as a doll right now, utterly unable to move, and even speaking took some effort.

If he really got lit up, that would truly be the end of him, no doubt about it.

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