Chapter 171

"Reflected Roar!"

Rowan raised his hand and gave the signal. On the field before him, the silver-haired little songstress, Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir, drew a sudden breath and threw back her head, unleashing a massive wave of green sound energy!

It slammed straight into the field across from him, into the tall, muscular Amazon swordswoman with violet-red hair and a curved longsword: Tania.

"Nani?! She's attacking my 1500-ATK Amazoness Swords Woman with a monster that has a measly 500 ATK?!"

Tania's face went slack with shock.

But almost immediately, something about the scene struck her as strangely, unsettlingly familiar.

Not far off, watching the duel, Alexis Rhodes, Jaden Yuki, and Chazz Princeton all felt that exact same inexplicable sense of deja vu rise up in them.

It really did look familiar, didn't it...

Not long ago, when that muscle-bound Amazon across the field, Tania, had used her Amazoness Swords Woman to freeload off Bastion's Litmus Doom Swordsman...

Alexis and the others had worked out fast why the feeling was so familiar!

Which meant a suspicion was already forming in their minds.

That monster Rowan had just summoned. Surely it didn't have some kind of freeloading ability just like that Amazoness Swords Woman across the field?!

"Hraaah!!"

The next instant, the violet-haired Amazon swordswoman raised her curved blade and swung with everything she had, meeting that massive green sound wave head-on.

An instant later, under the wave's impact, she let out a scream of pain, shattered into a spray of orange-gold particles, and vanished.

"Impossible! Why would my Amazoness Swords Woman, the one with the higher attack power, be the one who gets destroyed?!"

Tania's voice cracked with shock.

"That's the second effect of Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir."

Rowan held up two fingers, smiling as he explained.

"After she battles a Special Summoned monster, that monster is destroyed. And you take damage equal to the difference between that monster's attack power and her own original attack power."

"Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir's original attack power is 1000, five hundred points lower than your Amazoness Swords Woman. Which means you've still got five hundred points of damage coming your way. Reflected Roar!"

As Rowan's words trailed off...

"Aaah!"

That same massive wave of green sound energy surged forth once more as the silver-haired little songstress on his field threw back her head and sang at the top of her lungs.

It crashed straight into that muscle-bound Amazoness Barbie standing far across the field!

"Grrgh!!"

Tania clutched her head and let out a strangled groan of pain as the sound wave slammed into her, her teeth gritted against the agony.

Her Life Points, already down to 3500, ticked off another 500, dropping to 3000.

"There's a troublesome effect like that hiding in there too?!"

Tania's expression soured, and her fist clenched.

The real strength of her Amazoness deck, beyond nasty effects like the one on her Amazoness Swords Woman, was its ability to Special Summon monsters without the usual revival restrictions, to strip her opponent's attack power, and to boost her own monsters' attack, overwhelming everything through sheer offensive pressure.

But now, this seemingly weak little monster on Rowan's field had, without any warning, bluntly cut her main strategy off at the knees.

[Ding. Tania's Emotion Points +200]

"I knew it..." Alexis, Chazz, and Jaden all let out the same strained groan and pressed their palms to their foreheads.

Whatever monster Rowan played, no matter how "normal" and cute it looked on the surface, it was guaranteed to have crawled straight out of the underworld.

This wasn't some "gorgeous and adorable" young lady. It was clearly a top-tier freeloading specialist straight out of the shadow realm.

If anything, it was even more absurd than that muscle-bound Amazon Tania's own ace monster, the Amazoness Swords Woman.

"I'll Set three cards face-down. Turn end."

Rowan slid three of his five remaining hand cards face-down onto his Duel Disk and ended his turn.

"Hmph. It's a troublesome monster, I'll give you that. But I'm not entirely without an answer."

Tania scoffed, and with the hand still wrapped in her pitch-black item glove, drew a card from her deck with force.

"My turn! Let's turn this around!"

She glanced at what she'd drawn, and a slow smile spread across her face.

"There it is."

"So that Shadow Charm, that gauntlet of hers, actually boosts a duelist's draw luck to some degree, does it."

Watching Tania's expression shift, Rowan raised an eyebrow, quietly turning the thought over in his mind.

"What did Tania draw that could actually deal with Rowan's Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir?"

Chazz caught the shift in the muscle-bound Amazon's expression from across the field and voiced the question aloud.

The rest of the group tensed as well, eyes fixed on the duel.

"Let me show you the true power of the Amazons."

Tania smirked sideways at Rowan and activated the card she'd just drawn without a second's hesitation.

"Quick-Play Spell, activated from my hand: Amazoness Recall!"

"This card's effect: as long as I control a monster with 'Amazoness' in its name, I can target one Fusion Monster on your field and force it back into your Extra Deck. Then you get to Special Summon the original Fusion Materials used to summon it, straight out of your Graveyard!"

"Mamma mia, this is not looking good for our struggling little red dorm boy!"

Professor Crowler clutched at his own golden, mushroom-shaped hair.

Alexis and the others' faces all changed color at once.

Rowan's Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir might have an effect that kept her safe from being destroyed by battle or by card effects, but being forcibly bounced back to the Extra Deck fell completely outside the reach of that protection.