Chapter 164:

"Amazoness Swords Woman really does have a nasty effect, but as long as you use your traps wisely, it's an effect you can work around."

Bastion kept talking, addressing Tania directly across the field.

"Which means by your next turn, you're not going to have much life left."

"Not bad, dear Bastion. Though I'd say you're still a step behind that boy over there."

Tania delivered the first half of that line in her strange, exaggeratedly feminine register, then dropped straight back into her usual husky voice as she glanced past Bastion toward Rowan, still watching from the sidelines.

"I'll Set one more card and end my turn."

A soft thud sounded as a second face-down card joined the first on Tania's field.

She ended her turn there.

"Don't call me that! My turn. Draw!"

Bastion shot back immediately, then drew from his deck with grim focus.

He glanced at the card, and moved straight into the next step of his prepared strategy.

"Activating the Ritual Spell from my hand, Litmus Doom Ritual!"

He slapped the freshly drawn card down.

A deep rumble rolled through the arena as a ritual altar, crackling with faint arcs of electricity, rose up from the field before him.

"A Ritual Spell? Are you planning to Ritual Summon?" Tania said, sounding a little caught off guard.

Duelists running actual Ritual decks were rare across the whole dueling world, after all.

Even Chazz and Bastion himself looked surprised for a second.

Up to this point, the only time either of them had personally witnessed a Ritual Summon in action had been during Rowan's duel against Camula.

"This is my final move to take you down! This Ritual Spell's effect lets me send monsters from my hand or field, whose combined Levels total 8 or higher, to the Graveyard, then Ritual Summon a monster straight from my hand. Litmus Doom Swordsman!"

Bastion held up two monster cards from the remaining four in his hand.

"I'll send these two Level 4 monsters, Hydrogeddon, to the Graveyard from my hand! Summoning in Attack Position: Litmus Doom Swordsman!"

As Bastion's words rang out, the two monster cards dissolved in a soft glow, taking shape briefly as a pair of familiar, tan, mud-colored dragons rising above the altar.

Then, caught in a pillar of light surging up from the altar itself, the two dragons fused and reformed into the figure of a swordsman, dressed in white ceremonial robes with a flowing red cape, wielding twin blades.

The figure descended from midair to land on the field before him.

[Litmus Doom Swordsman] [Level: 8] [Attribute: DARK] [ATK: 0] [DEF: 0]

"Huh? Bastion actually summoned a monster with zero ATK...?"

Jaden and Syrus both let out a matching chorus of academically challenged confusion.

"Ah, my dear failing students of Slifer Red... apologies, I mean, my four fine students of Slifer Red."

Professor Crowler wagged a finger, clearly gearing up to launch into an insufferably smug little lecture.

Halfway through, though, he caught Rowan's raised eyebrow directed squarely at him, and a bead of cold sweat broke out.

He hastily amended his phrasing.

Rowan excluded, of course.

He continued the lecture aimed strictly at Jaden, Syrus, Chumley, and Chazz, all four of them now technically fellow Slifer Red residents.

"Allow me, Professor Crowler, to fill in this little gap in your outdoor theory education."

"Litmus Doom Swordsman is a Ritual Monster with a notoriously demanding summoning cost, and naturally, it comes with a correspondingly powerful effect. This monster is completely unaffected by Trap Cards, and cannot be destroyed by battle."

"And whenever there's a face-up Trap Card anywhere on the field, both its ATK and DEF become 3000."

Professor Crowler puffed up with self-satisfied pride.

"Only slightly weaker than my own ace monster, Ancient Gear Golem!"

Before Rowan even had to say anything, Chazz was already there to take the wind straight out of Crowler's sails.

"Except it's also unaffected by Trap Cards and can't be destroyed by battle. At equal ATK, there's no way that's weaker than your Ancient Gear Golem, right...?"

Crowler's smug expression froze on his face.

He scrambled for a comeback.

"Well, that's only under the specific condition that a face-up Trap Card is actually on the field."

"I already accounted for that." Bastion smiled, full of confidence, and slotted the last card in his hand onto his Duel Disk.

"I'll also Set one more card, and end my turn."

"So that face-down card of yours must be a Continuous Trap, then. One that stays on the field once it's activated."

Tania caught on immediately.

"Before you start worrying about the damage Litmus is going to do to you, you should probably be a lot more worried about what's waiting for you during your own Standby Phase. Blast Sphere."

Bastion clenched a fist, confident.

"Hmph. You really think your little plan's going to work out that neatly? My turn. Draw!"

Tania just laughed, entirely unconcerned, drawing from her deck.

Before Bastion or anyone else watching could even guess what she was up to, Tania had already waved a hand toward one of the two face-down cards waiting on her own field.

"Before Blast Sphere's effect can even trigger, I'm activating my set trap. Amazoness Shamanism!"

"This card's effect destroys every face-up monster on my field with 'Amazoness' in its name."

Tania grinned as she explained.

"And once they're destroyed, I get to Special Summon an equal number of Level 4 or lower 'Amazoness' monsters from my Graveyard, in Defense Position."