Chapter 185

"What?! There's a monster with an effect like that?!"

Titan clutched at his chest, staring in shock at the deep green Timelord standing on Rowan's field.

He hadn't seen this brat use a monster like that during their last duel. Back then, the kid's whole strategy had relied entirely on traps that crippled an opponent's attack power, paired with monsters that drained Life Points, the kind of deck built to gut an opponent's health in one sudden swing.

"You're not the only one allowed to switch decks, you know." Rowan grinned, pulling three cards from his hand and sliding them into the empty zones on his field.

"I'll Set three cards face-down and end my turn."

Three great shadowy card silhouettes rose up on the field in front of him with a series of heavy thuds.

"Every single new deck this guy pulls out somehow comes packed with some completely unpredictable, absolutely Underworld trick or effect..." Bastion muttered, watching from the sidelines, rubbing his temple.

That Timelord wasn't a damage reflection monster exactly like the Amazoness Swords Woman, but functionally, there didn't seem to be much difference.

"That Timelord of yours may have a powerful effect, combining offense and defense into one, but unfortunately for you, its existence is destined to be a fleeting one," Titan said, having recovered from the pain, lowering the hand he'd been pressing to his chest as he addressed Rowan.

He reached out and caught the card that automatically popped up from his segmented Duel Disk.

"My turn, draw!"

"Heh heh heh, my trump card, already? How convenient."

Titan glanced at the card he'd drawn and let out a smug chuckle.

"Did Titan just draw something that can deal with Rowan's Timelord?" Syrus asked, sounding puzzled.

"Exactly right!" Titan called back, having caught Syrus's voice from across the field. He laughed with satisfaction as he placed the drawn card directly into his left arm's Duel Disk.

"Activating a Ritual Spell from my hand! Matador Ascension!"

A wave of dark mist rippled up across the field in front of him, and an altar built from bleached white bone materialized out of the fog.

"This card's effect lets me Tribute monsters from my hand and field with a combined Level of 6 or higher, in order to Special Summon an Archfiend Matador from my hand!"

"I'll Tribute the Level 6 Normal Monster in my hand, Summoned Skull, as the offering! Descend, Archfiend Matador!"

Titan swept a hand through the air with a flourish. A familiar, bone-baring fiend flickered into being for just a moment above the bone altar the Ritual Spell had conjured, before dissolving into a pillar of dark light. Slowly, from within that light, a deep indigo figure took shape, a monster that looked disturbingly like some kind of vampiric fiend.

[Archfiend Matador] [Level: 6] [Attribute: DARK] [ATK: 0] [DEF: 0]

"It's got zero attack and zero defense too, just like the Timelord Rowan summoned...!" Alexis said, sounding genuinely startled.

Jaden, Chazz, and Professor Crowler all looked equally lost for words.

Was this some new trend now? Ridiculous monsters with zero attack and defense, relying entirely on their effects? Between the two highest-level monsters currently on the field, added together, they couldn't scrape together a single point of attack power between them.

"Archfiend Matador's special effect. Like your Timelord, it cannot be destroyed by battle, and any battle damage I take from it is reduced to zero. But on top of that, it destroys any monster it battles!" Titan declared with a smug laugh, gesturing at Rowan.

"Compared to that Timelord of yours, which can only stick around for a single turn, my Archfiend Matador is a far more powerful, far more practical card."

"It can't be destroyed by battle either, and it takes no battle damage... and on top of that, it destroys everything it fights!"

Atticus said, a faint sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead.

Which meant that even if Rowan managed to survive Titan's assault this turn unscathed thanks to Raphion's powerful effect, once his own Standby Phase arrived and the Timelord's side effect forced it back into his deck, he'd be left facing down an already brutal board state, and it was about to get a whole lot worse for him.

"Heh, and don't think that's all! You're still taking damage this turn too, kid!"

Seeing that Rowan's expression hadn't so much as flickered, if anything looking even more pleased with himself, Titan let out a cold snort. He pulled another card from his hand and slotted it into the Field Spell slot that had opened on his cylindrical left-arm Duel Disk.

"Next, I activate the Field Spell from my hand! Dark Arena!"

VWOOM!!

In an instant, a wave of dark energy surged outward from the center of the dueling field, spreading rapidly in every direction.

"What is this darkness...?!" Alexis, Zane, and Jaden all felt a chill run down their spines at once.

The black mist rolled outward, swallowing up even the spot where they stood, sealing the entire area into a closed-off pocket of darkness. What had already been nighttime grew darker still. Across the field, Titan's silhouette and his monster grew faint and indistinct, swallowed by the shrouding black.

Only Rowan, thanks to the Mark of the Crimson Dragon — Dragon's Claw and its true sight, along with the Dragon's Heart intuitive sense, could still clearly make out exactly what was happening on Titan's side of the field.

"Oh mamma mia, don't tell me Titan can't beat the problem student in a fair duel, so now he's planning to trap us all in here and hold us for ransom against the Chancellor!" Professor Crowler clutched his head, blurting out the absurd theory in a panic.