Chapter 165:

"What?! You mean you can destroy the monsters currently on your field, then Special Summon them straight back from the Graveyard?!"

Bastion's voice cracked with shock at the reveal.

This was completely outside anything he'd planned for.

"Exactly! Which means Blast Sphere, still equipped to my Amazoness Pet Tiger, gets destroyed right along with it, the moment its host monster is sent to the Graveyard. Its effect fizzles out entirely."

The muscle-bound Tania let out a smug little laugh, gesturing with a flourish.

"Break free and be reborn, Bass! Amazoness Swords Woman!"

At her words, the massive, savage, blue-eyed tiger and the powerfully built Amazoness swordswoman both dissolved from the bottom up in a shower of light, fading away completely.

The red, claw-equipped bomb sphere still latched onto the tiger's neck, primed to detonate, vanished right along with it.

Then, in twin flashes of soft light, the massive, one-eyed blue-eyed tiger and the towering Amazoness swordswoman both reappeared on the field, freshly revived.

"I didn't expect Tania to have a trick like that up her sleeve."

Alexis's opinion of the muscle-bound Shadow Duelist climbed noticeably.

She'd originally assumed Tania was mostly just physically strong, with fairly average dueling skill.

After all, up to this point, Bastion had been calmly outplaying her at every turn.

But now, right on Tania's third turn, the whole duel had suddenly flipped.

"Let me show you a bit more of what the Amazoness clan is really capable of."

Tania pulled another card from her hand and slapped it down on her Duel Disk.

"Summoning in Attack Position: a second Amazoness Swords Woman!"

"Hah!"

A soft glow rose, and an identical, deep purple-haired, powerfully muscled Amazoness swordswoman materialized, letting out a low battle cry as she took her place on Tania's field.

"Battle begin! First Amazoness Swords Woman, attack Litmus Doom Swordsman! Sword of Fury!"

At her signal, the first purple-haired swordswoman raised her curved blade, flame gathering along its edge, and lunged straight at Bastion's ritual monster.

"Activating my set trap. Continuous Trap, Spirit Barrier!"

Bastion gritted his teeth for a brief moment of hesitation, then gestured toward the one remaining face-down card on his field.

A low hum sounded as the trap flipped open, revealing an image of a warm, earthy tan energy barrier.

That same tan barrier immediately took shape around Bastion himself, shielding his body.

"This card's effect. As long as I control at least one monster on my field, all battle damage dealt to me becomes zero."

"That actually would have been a solid combo..." Rowan shook his head, watching the trap activate.

Litmus Doom Swordsman couldn't be destroyed by battle, and was unaffected by Trap Card effects.

Combined with Spirit Barrier's Continuous effect reducing battle damage to zero, it should have added up to something close to absolute defense.

Unfortunately, against a cursed, frame-job style monster like Amazoness Swords Woman, that defense had exactly one gap in it.

"Hmph. But with a face-up Trap Card now sitting on the field, your Litmus Doom Swordsman just hit 3000 ATK."

Tania called this out herself, grinning, before Bastion could even react.

Right on cue, the twin curved blades in Litmus's hands seemed to drink in some unseen surge of energy radiating off the Spirit Barrier trap itself.

His ATK ticked steadily upward, climbing all the way to 3000.

An instant later, as the attacking Amazoness Swords Woman closed in, Litmus raised both blades and struck back, cutting her down effortlessly in a burst of fire and smoke.

But the resulting explosion didn't head toward Tania at all.

Instead, it surged straight through the tan energy barrier protecting Bastion, and slammed into him directly.

"Argh!"

Bastion instinctively threw up an arm, grunting in pain.

His Life Points, a clean 4000 LP, dropped sharply by 1500, settling at 2500 LP.

"Litmus Doom Swordsman picking up that self-buff from the face-up trap and hitting 3000 ATK actually ended up putting Bastion in danger instead," Jaden said, his expression turning serious.

If Litmus had stayed at 0 ATK, then even Tania's 1500 ATK Amazoness Swords Woman would have easily overpowered it in battle.

But with Spirit Barrier's Continuous effect reducing that battle damage to zero, Bastion still would have come out completely unscathed.

Except now that Litmus's ATK had jumped to 3000, even though it had destroyed the attacking Amazoness Swords Woman, that monster's own special effect meant the battle damage Tania should have taken got redirected straight back onto Bastion instead.

And Tania still had a second copy of that exact same monster sitting on her field.

"Second Amazoness Swords Woman, attack Litmus Doom Swordsman again! Take another hit for me, dear Bastion!"

As Bastion's expression tightened, jaw clenched, Tania grinned and raised her hand once more, signaling the attack.

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