Chapter 10: Not Even Letting Them Go After Entering the Grave

[Dimensional Slash], one of the mainstream decks active in the early Yu-Gi-Oh! competitive scene. Although it never managed to secure the honor of a World Championship title, it once proved its combat power in the early meta, possessing the strength to rival even that year's champion deck.

You Xuan's initial deck concept drew reference from the Hand Destruction champion deck, but due to missing certain components and differences in the current meta, he merely adopted the core strategy while adjusting the build.

Dimensional Slash was one of the builds he was currently testing.

As the name implies, the core strategy of this deck was to send the opponent's cards to another dimension. It relied primarily on violent one-for-one trades like "Warrior Lady of the Wasteland," which forcibly banished both itself and an opponent's monster, but since his own side consisted of lower-level monsters playable immediately upon summoning, he could often trade away the large monsters the opponent had spent significant resources to create, generating a resource advantage.

Just as You Xuan was doing now.

Furthermore, because the opponent's removed monsters were kicked into another dimension rather than sent to the Graveyard, this posed considerable trouble for the mainstream decks of that era's competitive scene that relied on Graveyard resources. At the same time, the meta back then was filled with numerous "when sent to the Graveyard, search from the Deck" legacy monsters, all of which failed to trigger their effects against Dimensional Slash, making the situation extremely uncomfortable.

You Xuan had never personally experienced that ancient meta, but he could imagine that when duelists first encountered the Dimensional Slash build, their mental states must have collapsed upon seeing the great monsters they had struggled so hard to create get sent to another dimension by a single basic attack.

Just like Manjoume was right now.

Before dying, the Warrior Lady of the Wasteland made a desperate final strike; her single blade slashed open the void, tearing a black hole in the field just like a dimensional slash. Overwhelming gravitational force immediately captured both warriors, pulling the Sword Saint and the Lady Warrior alike into its depths, causing them to vanish beyond the black hole.

Losing their equip targets, the two Equip Magic Cards on the back row exploded with twin cracks, dissolving into fragments of golden light.

Manjoume had started with fierce operations, exhausting his resources to summon a big monster, only to have it kicked off-field into observer status without landing a single slash, nearly knocking the breath out of him in an instant.

But Manjoume took a deep breath and quickly stabilized his mindset.

Calm, must remain calm.

It was merely the loss of a mere eight-star big monster, two Equip Cards, and four cards from the hand.

Nothing major.

"When the Equip Magic Card 'Gem Sword' is sent from the field to the Graveyard, draw one card from the Deck."

Manjoume drew one card from his Deck, finally managing to recover a slight bit of ground. He glanced at it and immediately placed the drawn card into his Spell/Trap Zone.

"Set one card on the field. Turn end."

"My turn. Draw."

You Xuan added the drawn card to his hand, then revealed another card from his hand.

You Xuan said, "Summon 'Warrior Lady of the Wasteland'."

[Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, ATK 1100]

"Direct battle." You Xuan waved his hand, issuing the order, "Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, attack the opponent directly."

The Lady Warrior unsheathed her sword and leaped, soaring toward Manjoume.

But Manjoume had a countermeasure; he waved his arm to flip his set card: "Activate Trap Card, 'Absorb Shield'! Negate the opponent's attack, and restore Life Points equal to the attacking monster's ATK!"

A transparent rainbow barrier manifested before Manjoume; the Lady Warrior's long sword slashed fiercely against the barrier, its force instantly converted into energy and absorbed, falling upon Manjoume as a warm golden glow.

[Manjoume, LP 4000 → LP 5100]

"Heh, what a pity. But an attack of this level was entirely within my expectations." Manjoume continued his arrogant display.

You Xuan paid it no mind. Anyone who played cards knew that in this game, there was only zero LP and full LP. As long as LP remained, it was fine; compared to other resources in this game, it wasn't that important.

"Then I'll set one card and end my turn," You Xuan said.

"My turn!" Manjoume drew, then immediately revealed the card, "Spell Card - Pot of Greed! Draw two more cards from the Deck."

Pot of Greed, the standard equipment of the GX protagonist group; everyone had one in every single hand.

"Summon [Dark World Warrior - Blade Edge], in Attack Position!"

The card's image materialized; a warrior clad in black steel armor wielding dual blades flew out from the card art, his entire body covered in silver-white sharp edges resembling fangs.

[Dark World Warrior - Blade Edge, ATK 1800]

"Now I'll let you know that my monsters are also elites among elites, completely different from those lower-level trash!" Manjoume raised his hand and shouted, "Go, Blade Edge! Destroy 'Warrior Lady of the Wasteland'!"

The corner of his mouth curled upward as he let out a proud snort.

Although that yin-style trick on the other side had sabotaged his big monster, it didn't matter. [Dark World Warrior - Blade Edge] was also a powerful low-level monster with high market value; a Level 4 with 1800 ATK was normally quite capable in battle.

Could it be that you're going to pull another Warrior Lady of the Wasteland Mark II out of your crotch and kick it into another dimension again?

The black-armored swordsman leaped forward, his dual blades slashing across. The Lady Warrior was instantly sliced in half at the waist, exploding on the spot with a loud boom.

[You Xuan, LP 4000 → LP 3300]

With his monster destroyed, You Xuan remained calm, pulling his Deck from the Duel Disk and beginning to sift through it.

"The effect of Warrior Lady of the Wasteland activates. When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, Special Summon one Earth-attribute Warrior-type monster with 1500 or less ATK from my Deck in face-up Attack Position.

The one I will summon is this guy."

As he spoke, he had already pulled the searched card from his Deck.

"...Summon [Warrior of Another Dimension] in Attack Position!"

[Warrior of Another Dimension, ATK 1200]

Manjoume: "!"

Wait, again?

He recognized this monster too. Warrior of Another Dimension; when this card battles a monster, both that monster and this card are removed from play.

The other piece in the Dimensional Slash build, its effect was exactly the same as that of the Warrior Lady of the Wasteland.

Seeing the Warrior of Another Dimension take his stand on the opponent's field, Manjoume's eyelids twitched twice, feeling somewhat distressed in his lower abdomen.

No way.

How the hell can these yin-style things even fly out from the Deck?

No, must stay calm, cannot lose composure.

Manjoume glanced out of the corner of his eye at the one card in his hand.

There was still a means to deal with this yin-style thing, not completely without options.

"I set one card on the field. Turn end," Manjoume declared.

You Xuan's gaze swept over the last set card on Manjoume's back row.

Judging by the situation, it seemed there was a countermeasure against the Warrior of Another Dimension?

He smiled slightly.

It didn't matter.

"My turn. Draw."

You Xuan confirmed the drawn card and revealed it directly.

"Summon 'Spirit Reaper · Haikuu', in Attack Position."

Appearing on the field was a bald monk draped in a kasaya, but with a fierce expression, holding prayer beads in a manner that suggested he was ready to use them as a blunt weapon to strike someone at any moment.

In short, he looked very much like a martial monk who loved to "persuade people with reason."

[Spirit Reaper · Haikuu, ATK 1800]

Manjoume narrowed his eyes, sizing up this big monk.

"Battle," You Xuan said. "First, 'Warrior of Another Dimension', attack 'Dark World Warrior - Blade Edge'."

Just as expected.

"Don't even think about it... Open set card!"

A sharp light flashed in Manjoume's eyes as he waved his hand to flip his back row.

Trap Card - Sakuretsu Armor! When an opponent's monster declares an attack, destroy that monster!

[75] "Trap Card - Sakuretsu Armor! When an opponent's monster declares an attack, destroy that monster!"

As he spoke, the corner of his mouth twitched, revealing a confident smile.

"Heh, still trying to use a monster effect to banish my monster, are you? Unfortunately, the same trick won't work on me twice! The one to be destroyed is your own monster!"

You Xuan raised an eyebrow.

Sakuretsu Armor, huh. Not bad.

Every Yu-Gi-Oh! viewer knew that throughout the entire history of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sakuretsu Armor had appeared quite often in the anime, but to date, the number of times it had successfully activated remained zero. It even seemed that everyone who tried to use this card ended up dying, as if cursed by the will of the world itself.

Naturally, this curse could not be broken in You Xuan's hands.

"Open set card." You Xuan's back row flipped as well, "Counter Trap - Seven Tools of the Bandit. Pay 1000 Life Points to negate the activation of a Trap Card and destroy it."

Manjoume's eyelids twitched again.

Nani!?

Damn it, how do all your yin-style things have red traps escorting them??

[You Xuan, LP 3300 → LP 2300]

Manjoume's trap was countered; the miserable Sakuretsu Armor exploded into powder with a snap, continuing its undefeated myth of failure. The battle proceeded; Blade Edge swung his sword, piercing through the Warrior of Another Dimension, but before dying, the Warrior also tore open a rift in the dimension, like a black hole that sucked both of them into a vortex, leaving no trace.

[You Xuan, LP 2300 → LP 1700]

With this, both Manjoume's front and back rows were completely blank.

"Next is Spirit Reaper," You Xuan continued. "Attack Manjoume directly."

Hearing this, Haikuu stepped forward, flinging the prayer beads in his hand like hidden weapons; they smashed squarely onto Manjoume's forehead with a slap. The physical impact made his head ring, as if he had felt the weight of Buddha himself.

[Manjoume, LP 5100 → LP 3300]

"At this moment, the effect of Spirit Reaper also activates," You Xuan continued. "When Haikuu inflicts battle damage to the opponent's Life Points, you can select up to two monsters in the opponent's Graveyard and remove them from play."

Although two could be selected, by this point in the duel, all of Manjoume's monsters had already been kicked into another dimension; the only cards in his Graveyard were the "Swordswoman of Alfar" used as a tribute at the very beginning and the other monster card discarded from his hand.

Thus, You Xuan pointed at those only two remaining monster cards.

Not only the field, but even the only monster resources in the Graveyard were sent to another dimension; Manjoume was completely thrown into chaos.

This was excessive.

You really won't let them go even after they've entered the grave?

If my prediction is correct, this week's trial recommendation for this book will be determined based on the follow-read count of the chapter released tomorrow night.

Follow-read refers to the number of people who read the latest chapter within twenty-four hours after its release.

So reserve your follow-read for tomorrow's new chapter in advance! Pear paste!

(End of Chapter)