Chapter 184

"Go ahead and enjoy running your mouth while you still can, kid! Because in just a moment, you're going to witness true darkness!"

Titan's rage flared right back up at Rowan's teasing.

"Prepare yourself! It's starting!"

"Duel!"

"Duel!"

Rowan stepped forward, calling out the word in perfect unison with Titan. Two completely different Duel Disks lit up with a burst of crimson light, unfolding at the same instant. As both duelists drew their opening hand of five cards, identical Life Point counters flickered into being beside them.

4000 LP

"Heh. I'll take the first move. Draw!"

Titan grunted, plucking the card that automatically popped out from his segmented duel deck and adding it to his hand. He immediately pulled one card free and slapped it down onto his now fully unfolded Duel Disk.

"Normal Summon in Attack Position! Archfiend Matador Knight!"

"Grraah!!"

A faint glow flared, and a monster took shape, a jester-like fiend with exposed bone armor and blood-red wings, mounted atop a ram-horned skeletal beast. It materialized on the field directly in front of him.

[Archfiend Matador Knight] [Level: 4] [Attribute: DARK] [ATK: 1600] [DEF: 1200]

"I'll Set one card face-down and end my turn."

"A different Fiend deck than last time?" Rowan raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar monster.

"Heh. Sure, I lost to you last time and fell into despair, into darkness itself. But that's exactly how I gained an entirely new power and became a true Shadow Duelist," Titan said smugly. "You're about to find out exactly what that means over the course of this duel."

"Compared to whatever scrap of darkness you managed to scrounge up, why don't I show you a taste of the power of the Underworld first. My turn, draw!"

Rowan smiled faintly as he drew from his own deck. After a glance at the card, he slapped it straight down onto his unfolded Duel Disk.

"Normal Summon in Attack Position! Raphion, the Timelord!"

A pillar of deep green light surged up on the field in front of him. From within it emerged a strange monster with a deep green body, a gray, cylindrical mechanical lower half, and a golden divine head. Where its face should have been sat something like a mirror instead, reflecting the visage of a deity with deep green hair.

[Raphion, the Timelord] [Level: 10] [Attribute: WIND] [ATK: 0] [DEF: 0]

"Impossible! A Level 10 monster, summoned without a single tribute?!"

Across the field, Titan cried out in shock.

If this hadn't been a Shadow Duel, where cheating simply wasn't possible, he'd have been ready to report Rowan for hacking on the spot.

"A Timelord? Is that a special effect on a monster we've never seen before that let him summon it like that?" Atticus, watching from the sidelines, guessed aloud, clearly startled.

There was no other explanation. A Level 10 monster had no business coming out without proper Tributes.

"And it's a strange little runt of a monster too, zero attack and zero defense," Professor Crowler added, nodding along.

Everyone's eyes turned toward Rowan on the dueling field.

"Raphion, the Timelord's special effect. As long as I control no other monsters, this card can be Normal Summoned without Tributing," Rowan explained readily. "Though during my next Standby Phase, it has to be shuffled back into the deck."

"So what exactly is a Level 10 monster with zero attack and zero defense supposed to accomplish?!" Titan said, recovering his composure after a moment's shock, crossing his arms with a scornful laugh.

Zero attack power, and forced back into the deck next turn besides. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't imagine what use such a monster could possibly serve. Even the onlookers, Jaden and Zane among them, looked equally baffled.

"Why don't you find out for yourself exactly what it can do."

Rowan's mouth curled into a smirk as he waved a hand, issuing his command.

"Raphion, the Timelord, attack Archfiend Matador Knight!"

"Haaah!!"

At his gesture, the deep green Timelord raised both hands and unleashed a massive shockwave of green energy, hurling it straight at the ram-riding, jester-like fiend knight.

"What?! You're attacking my Archfiend Matador Knight with a zero attack power weakling, on purpose?!"

Titan stared in disbelief at the sight. Then, with a burst of anger, he waved a hand and barked out his own order.

"Since you're so eager to throw your monster away, Archfiend Matador Knight, destroy that pathetic runt!"

"Heeheehee!!"

The fiend knight astride its skeletal ram let out a mocking cackle, raising a clawed hand and firing off a cone of green energy straight back at the incoming shockwave.

BOOM!!

The two blasts collided head-on, and to everyone's utter astonishment, Raphion's deep green shockwave won out completely, overpowering the fiend knight's attack and hurling it straight back the way it came, past the monster itself, and straight toward the tall, black-coated figure standing behind it, Titan himself.

"That's impossible?!"

"Gaaah!!"

Before Titan could even process what was happening, the green beam tore straight through him. He let out an agonized scream, doubling over and nearly collapsing to his knees on the spot. His Life Points dropped from 4000, ticking down by 1600, landing at 2400 LP.

He immediately snapped his head back up, glaring at Rowan through gritted teeth in utter confusion.

"What's going on here? Does that Timelord have some kind of damage reflection effect, like that Amazoness Swords Woman?"

Jaden, Chazz, and the others watched, equally stunned, murmuring among themselves.

"Raphion, the Timelord's special effect. This monster cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects, and any battle damage I would take from it fighting is reduced to zero," Rowan explained, flashing a bright, sunny grin across the field at Titan.

"And after it finishes a battle, it deals damage to my opponent equal to the attack power of whatever monster it just fought."

The Timelord's torment had only just begun.