Chapter 45: Three Against One is a Huge Advantage

Boom!

Extra A: "Ughhhhhh!"

President Kaiba: "Hahahaha—"

Boom!

Extra B: "Ughhhhhh!"

President Kaiba: "Hahahaha—"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"."

You Xuan stood outside the door, looking at the dark duelists lying crisscrossed all over the bar floor in mere moments, rendered momentarily speechless.

How to put it?

Although he had long expected that Kaiba facing these people would be a stress-free curb-stomp, he still hadn't anticipated it could be this exaggerated.

The feeling reminded him of the scene in the anime when Chazz Princeton first arrived at the North Branch of Duel Academy, nearly one-shotting his way through the entire branch in under a minute.

This was generally the art style whenever the protagonists in the anime utterly demolished nameless extras; it had once led the young You Xuan, sitting in front of the TV back then, to firmly believe that dueling didn't require shuffling, prompting him to excitedly educate his friends on this astonishing discovery, after which he righteously took his unshuffled Exodia five-piece set to play cards with the kids.

And then... well, then no one played cards with him anymore.

But this truly wasn't his fault, because card games in the anime really didn't look like they involved shuffling, especially when the protagonist team was randomly slaughtering extras, with each hand being more absurdly lucky than the last.

Just like the scene of President Kaiba randomly slaughtering people right now.

"Tough! Invincible! The Strongest!"

Kaiba stood amidst the duelists lying all over the floor.

"Who else!"

At this moment, only three people were still standing on the opposite side of the shop.

Yamaguchi Ryosuke, the guy with the center-parted hair: "Damn it, even though we knew it was the legendary Seto Kaiba, we didn't expect him to be this exaggerated. In the blink of an eye, only we 'Four Heavenly Kings of the Blood Moon' are left."

Inoue Kazumi, the beautiful bartender: "Correction, it's Three Heavenly Kings. Fujimoto from the Four Heavenly Kings has already defected."

Ryosuke: "."

Fujimoto, speaking with earnest sincerity: "Brothers, forget it, don't struggle anymore. The President entrusted me to bring you a message: give up resistance, surrender on the spot, and generous preferential treatment will be greatly provided..."

Aikawa Takuya, the big guy among the Four Heavenly Kings, suddenly exploded into action: "I'll strangle you two-timing traitor first!"

Fujimoto quickly hid behind Kaiba, picking a side to demonstrate his loyalty.

"Heh, so you three are what's left of the so-called Four Heavenly Kings?" Kaiba crossed his arms and sneered. "You should be a bit stronger than the other miscellaneous fish, right?"

"So, who's going up first? Or do you want to come at me all together?"

Upon hearing this, the three immediately saw a light in their eyes.

There was such a good thing?

In a one-on-one, they had absolutely no chance of winning, but if it was three-on-one, no matter how powerful Seto Kaiba was, could he possibly gather all three of them and instantly wipe them out?

"Good, then it's settled, a fair and square three-on-one!"

You Xuan listened and wanted to retort: what the hell is 'fair and square' about three-on-one?

He did admire the President's confidence. In the real-world Yu-Gi-Oh, there were one-on-ones and team duels, but many-against-one was virtually unheard of, because the game simply wasn't designed that way; with multiple times the card disadvantage, field disadvantage, and even turn count disadvantage, normally it was impossible to fight.

But when anime characters crushed extras, they would casually take on three or four opponents at once, and generally, it was always a complete curb-stomp.

According to a theory circulating in the Yu-Gi-Oh community online that he had seen, characters in anime and manga possessed a setting called 'Destiny Power,' a talent that allowed duelists to influence fate and steer the direction of the future.

However, this talent was relative within a single duel; if one person's Destiny Power was stronger in a match, it would suppress the opponent's performance. This was also why, in anime, when important characters crushed extras, they always started with a god-tier hand and achieved a one-turn kill, yet when experts fought each other, both sides' opening hands appeared mediocre and unremarkable.

Therefore, in this environment, You Xuan cared more about the Destiny Power of the opponent he faced than whether the opponent had powerful monsters or decks. After all, those big monsters revered by contemporary duelists in this early era were nothing special compared to the boss monsters in the modern Yu-Gi-Oh he was familiar with, which were like fake cards; they weren't that much stronger.

Yet, Destiny Power was a powerful cheat that could grant extraordinary combat strength even to a deck of miscellaneous cards.

To give the simplest example: in the mainstream meta of later generations, a field built on the first turn was considered decent as long as it could continuously disrupt the opponent's expansion multiple times during the opponent's turn with effects like destroying cards or negating effects. Moreover, this often required a very long chain of talking through plays while enduring the opponent's hand traps and interruptions to achieve such an end board.

But in this world, if the gap in Destiny Power between the two sides reached a certain level, the stronger side only needed to draw three to five cards at the start with effects similar to 'Solemn Judgment' that could negate various opponent actions, plus one high-attack big monster to stand on the field; even with an ancient card pool, their suppressing power would be no worse than the mainstream metas of many years later.

In other words, while reality compared mostly deck strength, in this environment, the strength of the duelist was equally important.

Alright, then let's watch the President play cards today.

Although he felt the President would most likely not lose, he was still quite curious about how Kaiba intended to win while facing a threefold resource disadvantage.

One versus three; this was a perfect opportunity for him to observe the manifestation of a strong person's Destiny Power up close.

"Duel!" x4

[Ryosuke, LP 4000]

[Kazumi, LP 4000]

[Aikawa, LP 4000]

[Kaiba, LP 4000]

"I'll go first. Draw." Kaiba said indifferently. "In battle mode, the first player cannot attack on their first turn. I set two cards on the field. Turn end."

Seeing this, all three gasped in shock.

So arrogant? In a one-versus-three, he doesn't even summon a monster on his opening turn and just passes?

"Tch, if you're this confident, you'll have to pay the price for your arrogance, Seto Kaiba. My turn, draw!"

First up was Ryosuke, the center-parted guy from the Four Heavenly Kings.

"I summon 'Captain of the Assault Squad'!" Ryosuke declared. "Activating the effect of 'Captain of the Assault Squad': when this card is successfully summoned, I can Special Summon one Level 4 or lower monster from my hand."

The corner of his mouth curled up as he revealed another card in his hand.

"The monster I'm summoning is also 'Captain of the Assault Squad'!"

[Captain of the Assault Squad, ATK 1200] x2

"I see, an attack lock?" Kaiba said indifferently.

"Correct. As long as 'Captain of the Assault Squad' exists on the field, you cannot attack Warrior-type monsters other than itself," Ryosuke said proudly. "And when two 'Captains of the Assault Squad' exist on the field..."

"The effects of the two will form cross-protection, resulting in neither being able to attack," Kaiba said indifferently. "Attacks are locked."

"Indeed." Ryosuke shouted, "Next, I set one card face-down in my Spell/Trap Zone. Turn end!"

"Then it's my turn!" Next to act was the beautiful bartender, Kazumi. "I Normal Summon 'Mobile Fortress Cannon' from my hand!"

Thick metal treads like a tank, mounted with spears and cannons on both sides, with a metal dragon head protruding from the center.

"Although 'Mobile Fortress Cannon' is a Level 7 monster, it can be Normal Summoned without a tribute. However, when summoned via this effect, its Attack Points become half of their original value."

[Mobile Fortress Cannon, ATK 2800 → ATK 1400]

"Hehe, but next I will activate the Equip Spell 'Axe of Folly' from my hand!" Kazumi giggled. "The equipped monster gains 1000 Attack Points, but its monster effects are negated."

"Therefore, I equip 'Axe of Folly' to 'Mobile Fortress Cannon', raising Cannon's Attack Points by 1000 and negating its effect!"

Her two companions cheered in approval.

Ryosuke: "Because of Cannon's own side effect, its Attack Points are halved when summoned via tribute substitution. But if its effect is negated, its Attack Points return to their original value!"

Aikawa: "Not only that, it will also gain another 1000 Attack Points due to the effect of 'Axe of Folly', utilizing both the positive and negative effects of the equipment!"

[Mobile Fortress Cannon, ATK 1400 → ATK 3800]

"Well, this level of play is only natural for the Four Heavenly Kings." Kazumi smiled confidently. "My turn ends."

"Then next is my turn!" Aikawa shouted. "Activate the Spell Card Fusion!"

"Fuse 'Koala Bear' and 'Otter Koala' from my hand!"

"A summon from the ancient forest, the power of beasts intertwining at this moment. Fusion Summon—"

"—Level 6, Koala Bear Otter Koala!"

A towering storm exploded within the fusion vortex, and a huge, gray-black beast stepped out of the storm, landing ominously on the field.

[Koala Bear Otter Koala, ATK 2800]

"Next, I set one card on the field. Turn end!" Aikawa declared with full confidence.

All three were quite satisfied with this opening.

Three-on-one, starting with such a powerful formation; they simply didn't know how this cart could possibly overturn.

Since I probably won't get to see the White Dragon for a while, I'll reward the President with another chapter.

However, regardless of the word count, I guarantee this match will be finished within tomorrow's single chapter.

Daily request for monthly tickets and follows :)



(End of Chapter)