Chapter 59

"Battle phase! Archfiend General, attack the Stealth Bird on the right! Demon's Rage!"

Titan pointed to the face-down card on the right side of Rowan's field and brought the command down hard.

That was the one this kid had used to provoke him, summoned in attack position just to make a point.

The General obeyed instantly. It launched from the ground with its bone sword raised, orange-yellow flames screaming along the blade, arcing upward toward the face-down card below.

"Not going to let you break my deck's heart that easily." Rowan's hand moved. "Trap card, open. Reverse Glasses."

The card flipped, revealing the image of a mustachioed face peering through a pair of enormous spectacles.

"Until the end of your turn, all face-up monsters on the field have their attack points halved."

A hazy ring of light bloomed from the trap and wrapped around the Archfiend General mid-leap.

It let out a confused, disoriented howl as its momentum faltered in midair. 3100 points split in half.

Down to 1550.

"So there was another attack-reducing trap." Titan's expression dropped.

"But Reverse Glasses only lasts this turn. Next turn the General's attack comes back, and if I can pull another strong Fiend from my deck, that's when I turn this around."

"That's true!" Alexis, Jaden, Chumley, and Syrus all reacted with a jolt.

Reverse Glasses was a one-turn effect.

Next turn Archfiend General would be sitting at 2100 again.

If Titan added another high-attack monster alongside it, he could push through the Stealth Birds without taking any reflected damage.

Rowan's back row was nearly depleted, and he only had two cards left in hand.

The window to finish this might not stay open.

Then they noticed that Rowan's expression hadn't changed even slightly.

"So I've also prepared a second surprise." He was already smiling, easy and bright. "Trap card, open. Wall of Disruption."

The last face-down card in his back row flipped.

The familiar purple-black design.

"When an opponent's monster declares an attack, all attack position monsters my opponent controls lose 800 attack points for each monster on your field. You now have three monsters after summoning the General, so each one loses 2400 attack points."

"That's impossible! How can you still have that card?!"

All the color left Titan's face.

Two beams of light, one purple, one black, shot from the trap in the same instant.

One caught the Archfiend General still hanging in midair, sword blazing.

The other swept across the field to hit Terrorking, still standing there with his humiliating 400 attack points.

The numbers fell to zero. All of them.

Three monsters. Combined attack power: nothing.

[Ding. +600 Emotion Points from Titan.]

The chime rang out, pleasant and clear. Rowan's smile widened slightly.

"Let's see that famous demonic fury one more time. Battle continues. Archfiend General, complete your attack on my Stealth Bird."

"No...!"

Titan could only watch as his General, utterly committed, brought the flaming bone sword down on the face-down card anyway.

"Kraaaah!!"

The card flipped. The Stealth Bird appeared, tilted its bat-beaked head with that same cold, crooked grin, and the icy cyclone kicked up around its wings on instinct.

The General's strike came in at zero force. The wind caught it, caught the sword, caught the General itself, and flung the whole thing backward.

It hit Titan like a battering ram.

He went down, slammed flat against the ground, and the freezing wind raked across him a second time, tearing fresh lines through the coat that was already shredded from before.

"AAUGH!"

2300 LP --> 600 LP

He didn't get up.

"That's... that's rough," Jaden managed.

He, Syrus, and Chumley had instinctively pressed together, each one leaking a thin line of cold sweat.

It wasn't just the physical damage, though that was bad enough. It was the field.

Three monsters combined, and between them they couldn't scrape together a single attack point.

The sight of it inspired something close to pity.

Titan had one card left in hand.

His Life Points were at 600. He was unconscious.

When Rowan's turn came, one Flip Summon from the remaining Stealth Bird would deal 1000 damage.

The duel was over in everything but name.

What none of them could quite articulate, though, was the growing sense that the psychological damage Titan had taken over the course of this duel had quietly exceeded the physical damage by a significant margin.