Chapter 68: Rowan: Full Auto Barrage, Ratatatata!

"I summon Kaiser Sea Horse in attack position!"

Dox slapped the card down on his Duel Disk.

A humanoid figure burst into existence on the field, clad in armor modeled after a seahorse's ridged fins, iridescent blue and violet from head to toe, and carrying a vicious-looking weapon that crackled with restrained energy.

Kaiser Sea Horse Level 4 / LIGHT ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1650

"Tag Duel rules say neither side can attack on the first turn. But if you think summoning one monster is all we're planning..."

Dox's eyes burned with conviction as he grinned across the field at Rowan and reached back into his hand.

"I never thought that was all you were planning. Which is exactly why, the moment you moved to play that card..."

Rowan had already raised his hand, pointing to one of the three face-down cards on his side of the field.

"I'm opening this. Trap Card: Secret Barrel!"

The card flipped face-up.

A cartoonish but enormous machine gun rendered in red, blue, and green blazed into view.

"This trap deals 200 points of damage for every card the opponent controls, including both hand and field!"

"A direct damage trap?!"

Both brothers stiffened.

Even Alexis turned toward Rowan with a flicker of genuine surprise.

She had never seen this card before. Like that Spell Card he'd used to one-turn-kill Chazz at the very start, this was something entirely outside her experience.

Another card she'd never heard of.

The spectators in the stands wore the same expression.

Jaden, Crowler, all of them blank-faced with unfamiliarity.

"Para has five cards in hand and one Jirai Gumo on the field. Dox also has five in hand and one Kaiser Sea Horse on the field. Twelve cards total."

Bastion counted it out quietly from the stands.

"That trap is perfectly tuned for Tag Duels," Zane said beside him, giving a measured nod.

"Counting both opponents together multiplies the damage significantly."

On the field, Rowan was already speaking.

"Two hundred points per card. Twelve cards. That's 2,400 points of damage."

"Secret Barrel, fire."

The enormous toy machine gun materialized fully from the trap's glow and opened up on the Paradox Brothers, rattling away with a gleeful mechanical clattering.

"Da-da-da-da-da!!"

A spray of colorful wooden corks blasted out in rapid succession, pelting both brothers like a sudden hailstorm.

Each one stung on impact, small and insistent.

"Guh!!"

Para and Dox both threw up their arms against the barrage, grunting through gritted teeth.

Their shared Life Points dropped in a cascade of beeps.

8000 LP → 5600 LP

[Ding. Paradox Brothers (Yellow/Green): Emotion Points +400!]

"Damn you..."

Both brothers were scowling now, and when they looked at Rowan the fire in their eyes had grown considerably hotter.

Losing 2,400 LP on the first round was bad enough.

Being pelted by a toy machine gun while it happened was something else entirely.

There was a very specific, very irritating quality to being made to feel like the punchline of a joke during a serious duel.

"Impressive trap play. Then allow us to answer."

Dox pulled out the card he had been about to activate before the trap interrupted him, and set it on his Duel Disk.

"Spell Card: Tribute Doll!"

"This card lets me tribute one monster on my side of the field to Special Summon a Level 7 monster directly from my hand."

He glanced toward his brother.

Para gave a single nod.

Dox's lopsided grin returned.

"I'll use Big Brother's Jirai Gumo as the tribute."

"Come forth. Kazejin!"

A white gale erupted from the center of Dox's field, howling and swirling outward in every direction.

From within the vortex, a figure emerged: a squat, rounded shape with a single dark green body like an enormous toad, two broad arms spread wide, and a ringed kanji for "wind" stamped boldly across its brow.

It floated out of the storm with its arms open, rotating slowly in the air.

Kazejin Level 7 / WIND ATK: 2400 / DEF: 2200

"...Still one of the ugliest monsters I've ever seen," Rowan muttered, unable to hold it back.

Excuse me?!

The Paradox Brothers both twitched. That was their signature card he was talking about.

A moment later, Rowan noticed Alexis had gone quiet beside him, her expression turned serious.

"The monster itself is... admittedly unfortunate-looking. But tributing a partner's monster with a negative effect to immediately follow up with a Level 7 powerhouse, all in one turn, that's real coordination."

She said it carefully, like she was working through the implications.

That single play had told her something.

Their decks weren't just individually strong. They were built around each other, for Tag Duels specifically.

And there was more coming.

"Don't worry," Rowan said, raising an eyebrow in her direction.

"When it comes to coordination, we're not exactly short on that ourselves."

Alexis blinked.

She looked at him for a moment, then something in her expression quietly shifted.

A small smile found its way to her face before she could think better of it.

She glanced at the face-down card still sitting in her back row.

He already figured out what I added, she realized. No prior discussion, no deck exchange.

He'd just read her build and understood what she'd changed and why she'd changed it.

A trap she had specifically reworked into her deck to complement his strategy.

And somehow he'd already guessed what it was.

They weren't operating without synergy.

They had something between them, a coordination built not from planning but from familiarity.

Right.

We're not going into this empty.

Alexis lifted her gaze back to the Paradox Brothers across the field, confidence fully restored.

Rowan, for his part, noticed her reaction was slightly more than he'd expected, then filed it away as not immediately worth examining.

He was already watching to see what the brothers would do next.