Chapter 67: The Hate Meter Has Hit Maximum

"Then I'll set one card face-down. Turn end."

Alexis placed a card into her Duel Disk, and with a soft thud, the outline of a face-down card materialized in her back row.

She couldn't see it from the outside, but Rowan had a fairly good read on what she'd just set.

That card, the one she'd drawn on her first turn and smiled at, was almost certainly the trap she'd slotted into her deck to work alongside his strategy.

It would keep. Tag Duel rules meant the turn order rotated between all four players, and it wasn't his turn yet.

"Hah. Summoning a 2100 ATK Fusion Monster on your very first turn. Not bad at all, little lady."

Para, the elder of the Paradox Brothers in his earthy yellow robes, glanced over the field with a crooked grin.

"But it won't be nearly enough to beat us."

"My turn. Draw."

He pulled a card from the top of his deck, looked at it once, and slapped it down on his Duel Disk.

"I summon Jirai Gumo in attack position!"

Something skittered into existence across the field.

A massive, ugly brown spider, all bristling legs and snapping mandibles, letting out a grating screech as it landed.

Jirai Gumo Level 4 / EARTH ATK: 2200 / DEF: 100

"A Level 4 monster with 2200 ATK?! That's insane!"

Jaden and Syrus, watching from the sideline, reacted in unison.

Even Alexis, who had just put her ace card on the field, couldn't help but frown.

The difference in effects between the two monsters was enormous. Cyber Blader's effect was a powerful, proactive ability.

Jirai Gumo's was a liability by design: every time it attacked, you had to call a coin flip, and if you got it wrong, you took damage equal to half your current Life Points.

But none of that changed the fact that a 2200 ATK monster sitting in attack position was still a wall Cyber Blader couldn't walk through.

Even if Para never used it to attack, just leaving it there was enough to shut down any offensive play on their side next turn.

It was a defensive anchor, a way to make sure the spider didn't get picked off easily while the brothers prepared whatever came next.

Rowan, though, already knew the Paradox Brothers weren't planning to wait that long.

"My turn ends! Over to you, kid!"

Para turned toward Rowan with that same lopsided grin.

"I was already reaching for the deck before you finished talking. My turn. Draw!"

As far as Rowan was concerned, those gleaming crooked smiles the brothers kept wearing were practically an invitation.

He had already decided he'd be sending them plenty of warm, healing attention before this duel was over.

Enough to sort out that smug condition of theirs entirely.

He looked at the card he'd drawn, and his expression brightened immediately.

He set it on his Duel Disk without a second's pause.

"I summon Stealth Bird in attack position!"

"Kreeeeh!!"

A cold blue shimmer pulsed through the air. From it emerged a bizarre creature, all dark wingspan and wrong angles: a bat's head, a bird's beak, blue feathers that seemed to absorb the light around them.

It materialized on the field in front of Rowan, cackling at nothing in particular.

"Stealth Bird... in attack position...?!"

Every spectator in the room, from Chancellor Sheppard and Crowler down to Bastion and Zane, did a collective double-take.

Then, almost simultaneously, they figured it out.

Stealth Bird. Once per turn, it could flip itself face-down.

And when it was flip summoned, it dealt 1000 damage directly to the opponent.

The realization landed like a cold towel to the face.

So Rowan was messing with the Paradox Brothers' heads.

Drawing their fire, making them want to destroy the Stealth Bird on his field so Cyber Blader could stay untouched.

"Wait, is Rowan doing the same thing he pulled on Titan last night? What do you think, Jaden?"

Syrus looked up at his brother's roommate with a puzzled expression.

Except the situation on the field looked pretty different from that one, didn't it?

"Not quite," Jaden said, nodding slowly as he turned it over in his head.

"He's advertising that his monster is a Stealth Bird. He's letting them know it has a 1000 damage flip threat sitting there. He wants them to prioritize targeting his side of the field."

If that was the play, it wasn't a bad one for a Tag Duel at all.

If things called for it, he and Syrus might even borrow the idea when their turn came.

Across the field, Para and Dox had gone very still.

The same thought crossed both their minds at exactly the same time.

This kid is doing this on purpose.

If you wanted to draw aggro and shield your partner's monster, there were a hundred more dignified ways to go about it.

Did it really have to be like this?

"Activating Stealth Bird's effect. Once per turn, I flip it face-down."

Rowan flipped the card, then set three more cards to his back row.

"Three cards face-down. Turn end."

Alexis, watching him from beside her Cyber Blader, felt a faint warmth rise to her face before she could stop it.

He had just structured his entire turn around protecting her monster. She knew the logic. She understood the tactic.

That didn't change the fact that it was slightly difficult not to read something into it.

Even Cyber Blader, who had awakened to the faintest trace of a dueling spirit, turned her head to look at Rowan for just a moment.

No one else could see that. To every spectator present, the hologram hadn't moved at all.

And for his part, Rowan genuinely hadn't thought about any of it from that angle.

It was a clean aggro pull, nothing more.

"My turn! Draw!"

Dox, the younger brother in his deep green robes, drew with his eyes suddenly alight.

"You want our attention? Fine by us!"