Chapter 172

Alexis Rhodes and Jaden Yuki, along with the rest of the group, quickly noticed that Rowan seemed to have seen this coming from a mile away.

His expression stayed exactly as calm and unbothered as ever.

"If you'd actually managed to bounce my monster back to the Extra Deck, that would've given me a real headache. Trap Card, open! Melodious Illusion!"

A ghostly, resentment-laced surge of energy rose from the shadow of the Quick-Play Spell now hovering over Tania's field, lancing straight toward the silver-haired little songstress standing across from her.

Rowan immediately raised a hand, gesturing toward one of the three set cards waiting in his back row.

"Wonn!!"

A Trap Card flipped up at once, revealing an illustration of a phantom girl woven from musical notes.

"This card's effect: I choose one monster on my field with 'Melodious' in its name. This turn, that monster is unaffected by your opponent's Spell and Trap effects!"

As Rowan finished speaking, a dark violet glow flared up from the Trap Card's illustration, coalescing into a shield of musical-note energy that wrapped around Bloom Diva the Melodious Choir.

It blocked the incoming wave of ghostly energy completely, deflecting it away without a trace.

"Nani? She even had a trap prepared just to guard against the return effect?!" Tania's expression twisted, a flicker of frustration crossing her face.

[Ding. Tania's Emotion Points +300]

Tania ground her teeth, brow furrowed, glaring at the silver-haired little songstress standing in Attack Position on Rowan's field, the one with a measly 500 ATK that was somehow still brazen enough to stand there in an attacking stance.

This small, adorable-looking monster girl felt, to her right now, like a rock stuck at the bottom of an outhouse: stubborn, foul, and utterly impossible to shift.

Immune to being destroyed by effects, and incapable of dealing battle damage to boot.

Unless she could somehow flip that monster into Defense Position, where its DEF of 2000 would matter, she still had a way to win this if she simply Normal Summoned her Amazoness Swords Woman.

Otherwise, all that was left was to grind this out "slowly" against this Rowan character.

Once she'd settled on her strategy, Tania raised the Duel Disk on her left wrist and slotted her last card into the open Field Spell Zone.

"Field Spell, activate! Amazon Arena!"

"KRAAAKOOM!!"

With a deep rumble from the ground, a massive black iron cage bristling with spikes rose up around the entire dueling arena.

It enclosed the whole sweeping expanse of the duel field, trapping both Rowan and that muscle-bound Amazon Barbie Tania inside together.

"Amazon Arena's effect. The moment it's activated, both players recover 600 Life Points. And every time a monster attacks, that monster's controller can pay 100 Life Points to deal 100 points of damage to their opponent!"

"What kind of effect is that, pointless mutual attrition? And right now Rowan's the one with the Life Point lead, isn't he?!"

Hearing Tania explain the field's effect, Syrus Truesdale and Chumley Huffington, the group's two academic washouts, both blurted out in surprise.

"No, if this were a Shadow Duel, this Field Spell would actually be incredibly effective."

Having lived through a Shadow Duel himself and knowing firsthand just how terrifying they could be, Jaden's expression turned unusually serious as he explained.

"Because the damage from a Shadow Duel is real. If somebody's body can't take it anymore, they lose. For real."

"In other words, when this Field Spell's effect triggers, it's basically the same as walking up and throwing a punch, dealing real damage to the other guy... isn't it?"

Chazz wasn't sure what expression was appropriate for that particular realization and settled for a slightly bewildered interpretation instead.

He himself had been driven to clench his fists more than once by how infuriating Rowan could be, half-tempted to Summon his own knuckles in Attack Position.

But this was the first time he'd actually seen someone in the middle of a duel get so worked up by Rowan that their blood pressure spiked and they genuinely wanted to settle it with their fists.

Ready to burn through 100 Life Points at a time if that's what it took, just for the satisfaction of landing one good punch on that Rowan character.

"Resorting to violence is a rather uncivilized way to settle things, don't you think."

Even Rowan's mouth twitched slightly at that.

Still, he had no intention of actually taking a punch to the face. He raised a hand at once, gesturing toward one of the two remaining set cards on his field.

"Trap Card, open. Quick-Play Spell, Book of Moon!"

A Quick-Play Spell bearing the image of an ancient tome beneath a crescent moon flipped face-up.

"This card's effect: target one face-up monster on your opponent's field. That monster is flipped face-down into Defense Position."

"And the one I'm choosing is, of course, your Amazoness Paladin! That strips away your right to use the field's effect this turn."

Rowan said it with a sunny, easy smile.

As his words fell, a mysterious green light burst forth from the crescent-mooned tome depicted on the Spell Card, streaking through the air and landing directly on the battered figure of the Amazoness Paladin, still gripping her worn weapon.

She let out a strained cry as she was engulfed in a ball of light, then reformed as a massive card, flipped face-down and laid sideways on the field.

"You!"

Tania clenched her fists, teeth grinding, glaring at Rowan with an expression twisted somewhere between fury and helpless frustration.

The Field Spell Amazon Arena's effect could only be used by the controller of a monster at the moment that monster declared an attack.

Now that the only monster on her field had been flipped face-down into Defense Position, she obviously couldn't use the field's effect anymore.

And once it came around to Rowan's turn...

It would be that infuriating kid's turn to use the field effect, paying 100 Life Points to land a punch on her instead!

For the first time in a duel, Tania was tasting the special kind of misery that came with having power and absolutely nowhere to use it.

Her Special Summons were locked down by that small, harmless-looking monster. And now her dream of a real Shadow Duel, a genuine fist-to-fist showdown, had just been shut down too.

On top of that, her own field effect was about to be turned around and used against her!

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